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<title>23 August, 2023</title>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-down" id="covid-19-sentry">Covid-19 Sentry</h1>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" data-aos-anchor-placement="top-bottom" id="contents">Contents</h1>
<ul>
<li><a href="#from-preprints">From Preprints</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-clinical-trials">From Clinical Trials</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-pubmed">From PubMed</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-patent-search">From Patent Search</a></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-preprints">From Preprints</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>The Usage of Mindsponge Theory for Explaining The Willingness of Global Citizens to Provide Geospatial Global Positioning System (GPS) Data From Their Smartphones During The COVID-19 Pandemic</strong> -
<div>
Global citizens have widely discussed COVID-19 and its transmission prevention since the World Health Organization (WHO) announced the disease as a public health emergency of international concern on January 30, 2020, and a pandemic on March 11, 2020 [1]. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of digital epidemiology based on public health data [2]. In the early stages of the pandemic, public health officials faced critical problems in collecting effective information input from the public. Specifically, the issues around the donation of digital data related to the context of mobile phone privacy became a major roadblock in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic [3]. Hswen et al. [3] evaluated people’s willingness to provide their smartphone geospatial global positioning system (GPS) data during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study involved 1055 participants from 41 countries with a mean age of 34. Findings showed that participants living in India or Brazil were more willing to provide their GPS data than those living in the United States. No significant differences were seen between positive and negative valence framing messages. Monetary incentives of $5 significantly increased participants’ willingness to provide GPS data. Half of the participants in the self-interest and pro-social arms agreed to provide their GPS data, and almost two-thirds of participants were willing to provide their data in exchange for $5. Framing and incentivization can be used in combination to influence the acquisition of private GPS smartphone data. Financial incentives can increase data provision to a greater degree with no losses on these intrinsic motivations to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. The study’s findings have the ability to contribute to lowering the social cost of epidemic control by informing evidence-based policymaking efficiently [4].
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/z9ert/" target="_blank">The Usage of Mindsponge Theory for Explaining The Willingness of Global Citizens to Provide Geospatial Global Positioning System (GPS) Data From Their Smartphones During The COVID-19 Pandemic</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>The Usage of Mindsponge Theory for Explaining The Social Identity Loss and Reverse Culture Shock among International Students in China During COVID-19 Pandemic</strong> -
<div>
International students are often exposed to various challenges during life transitions. The COVID-19 pandemic in China has also contributed to these life challenges. During the global pandemic period, there were two groups of international students. The first group was those who remained in China during the pandemic, and the second group was those who had left China and were stranded in their home countries due to a ban on international travel amid COVID-19. By qualitatively studying these two groups of participants, Raja et al. [1] found that the first group experienced challenges like anxiety, campus closure, lockdown, parental health issue concern, and social isolation, while the second group experienced challenges like reverse culture shock which was more distressing, readjustment to home country, life changes in home and host countries, social and academic resources loss (study environment disruption, losing important group memberships, financial constraints, visa expiry, graduation delay, and academic suspension) [1]. Raja et al. [1] utilized the mindsponge theory (MT) as their study framework. MT focuses on the human mind’s information processing system in explaining individual behavior changes over time based on contextual settings [2]. Mindsponge framework consists of five components, namely: 1) mindset, 2) comfort zone, 3) multi-filtering system, 4) cultural and ideological setting, and 5) cultural values [3]. There was a shift of the “mindset” of international students where the personal identity, such as “Who am I?” shifted into “How I should be?” MT helps explain how life changes impact international students’ sense of belonging amid the COVID-19 pandemic, focusing on the dimensions of identity through the mindsponge mechanism. This mechanism suggests that individuals absorb and integrate new cultural values compatible with their core values while rejecting those of lesser importance [4]. Based on this notion, this study explores the experiences of international students in China regarding their unplanned return to their home countries during the COVID-19 pandemic [1]. This study highlighted the re-acculturative stress international students face in their home countries due to unplanned transitions during the pandemic.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/4w82u/" target="_blank">The Usage of Mindsponge Theory for Explaining The Social Identity Loss and Reverse Culture Shock among International Students in China During COVID-19 Pandemic</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>The Usage of Mindsponge Theory for Explaining The Generation Mechanism of Career Decision-making Difficulties among Chinese Undergraduates During The COVID-19 Pandemic</strong> -
<div>
The COVID-19 situation in China has led various sectors to accept the employment of college graduates lately. The low record number of Chinese college graduates and the pressure from the economic downturn resulted in low confidence in employment among college graduates. The difficulties in career decision-making have gradually developed into a psychological barrier to successful employment among Chinese undergraduates. By conducting a qualitative study of 20 undergraduates exhibiting delayed employment, Shi [1] found that the variables of individual, parents, peers, and social environment influence participants’ career decision-making difficulties. This study proposes a multivariable and single-subject generation mechanism to explain Chinese undergraduates’ career decision-making difficulties during the pandemic. Shi [1] utilized the framework of social cognitive career theory (SCCT) [2] aided by the mindsponge theory (MT) to explain her study findings. SCCT was insufficient to explain the mental state changes in the career decision-making difficulties encountered by participants over time in further detail [1]. Therefore, SCCT was aided by MT to fill this gap. MT utilizes the human mind’s information processing approach to understand better individual behavior changes over time based on contextual settings [3]. Mindsponge framework consists of five components, namely: 1) mindset, 2) comfort zone, 3) multi-filtering system, 4) cultural and ideological setting, and 5) cultural values [4]. MT is helpful when studying psychological phenomena in terms of their temporal dimension with regard to the information process associated with the natural renewal of human psychology and society, which can explain and help address complex psychological and behavioral problems [5].
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/r7kgw/" target="_blank">The Usage of Mindsponge Theory for Explaining The Generation Mechanism of Career Decision-making Difficulties among Chinese Undergraduates During The COVID-19 Pandemic</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>The Application of Mindsponge Framework and 3D Framework in Explaining The Production Process of COVID-19 Vaccines Globally</strong> -
<div>
Global citizens have widely discussed the COVID-19 outbreak since the World Health Organization (WHO) announced the disease as a public health emergency of international concern on January 30, 2020, and a pandemic on March 11, 2020 [1]. Since then, tremendous efforts have been made by scientists and health professionals to innovate the COVID-19 vaccines, which safeguard against the virus. It is helpful to conduct an in-depth conceptual investigation into the process of producing, administrating, and distributing COVID-19 vaccines. Vuong et al. [2] explained the COVID-19 vaccine production process by using the serendipity-mindsponge-3D (SM3D) creativity management theory. The mindsponge theory explains how the human mind processes information in contextual settings [3], while the 3D creativity management theory explains how creativity and innovations are made through information processes [2]. Conceptually, the mindsponge framework consists of five components: 1) mindset, 2) comfort zone, 3) multi-filtering system, 4) cultural and ideological setting, and 5) cultural values [4]. Meanwhile, the 3D framework consists of three major blocks: (1) the information absorbing and filtering block, (2) the creativity processing block, and (3) the innovation outcome block [5]. Based on the mindsponge framework [4] and the 3D framework [5], the COVID-19 vaccines production process was explained through three main stages, such as: 1) vaccine-related information absorption or rejection based on usefulness, 2) information usage for developing vaccines in a short period, and 3) vaccines production, distribution, and administration, finally in late 2020 [2]. These insights may be beneficial for facilitating the subsequent production, administration, and distribution of modified vaccines and vaccination campaigns.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/dmzgq/" target="_blank">The Application of Mindsponge Framework and 3D Framework in Explaining The Production Process of COVID-19 Vaccines Globally</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>A Systematic Background Check of TRICARE Provider Names</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
During Covid-19, the Defense Health Agency9s TRICARE insurance plan expanded its coverage to include 30.1% additional civilian healthcare providers. The DHA9s Annual Report, however, states that TRICARE9s provider directories are only 80% accurate. Although the DHA9s 9.6 million beneficiaries need expanded access to care, they also require protection from misleading information, medical fraud, patient abuse, and identity theft. Since 2013, the Department of Health and Human Services9 Office of the Inspector General has excluded 17,706 physicians from federal health programs due to misconduct. Patients who receive care from excluded providers experience worse medical outcomes. To determine if any excluded provider names were found on TRICARE9s website, we performed background checks on TRICARE West9s healthcare provider directory between January 1 and March 2023. Out of 39,463 provider names sampled from 22 states, there were 2,398 matches (6.08%) with individuals and businesses found in the OIG List of Excluded Individuals and Entities (OIG-LEIE), the GSA-SAM, the HHS HIPAA Breach Report, the International Trade Administration9s Consolidated Screening List, the OIG-HHS Fugitive List, the FBI9s January 6th Capitol Violence List of Charged Defendants, State Medicaid Exclusion Lists, and FDA Debarment Lists. Our study includes demographic analysis of the matching names and recommendations for an Insider Threat Management model. We recommend that DHA officials publish the National Provider Identification (NPI) numbers of all TRICARE providers. NPI numbers facilitate more accurate background checks of healthcare providers.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.08.14.23294073v1" target="_blank">A Systematic Background Check of TRICARE Provider Names</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>KCL TEST: an open-source inspired asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 surveillance programme in an academic institution</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Objectives: To establish a SARS-CoV-2 PCR testing programme in an academic institution to analyze saliva samples collected from asymptomatic staff and students. Design: PCR to detect SARS-CoV-2 RNA in saliva self-collected by asymptomatic students and staff members from King′s College London, and their household contacts. Standards for diagnostics testing set by the DHSC (UK) were followed to develop an automated saliva PCR service for SARS-CoV-2 detection. Prospective study that run from December 2020 until July 2022. Setting: Testing took place in an academic institution including 18 different locations in London (UK). Participants: There were no selection criteria; asymptomatic participants were encouraged to test regularly (twice weekly when on campus). Main outcome measures: Number of tests, number of participants and positive rate. Results: 158,277 PCR tests were carried out on saliva, of which 2,989 were positive (1.89%), collected by 20,186 participants. Between 10-30% of campus footfall were tested. The positive rate was equivalent to that reported by the Office for National Statistics (UK), except for the period encompassing the delta variant; this wave was nearly absent in our cohort. We employed non-commercial reagents and an open source-inspired automated pipeline for sample processing. This rapidly developed service was awarded UKAS accreditation under the ISO15189 standard. Conclusions: Including academic institutions in pandemic preparedness is a critical consideration, considering the experience in developing, validating, and implementing economic and scalable testing solutions. Given the joint ventures in hospital pathology departments across the UK and the move to centralised, automated, commercial tests, focusing on academic centres that can carry out research and development to test for novel and re-emerging pathogens should be a top priority.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.07.25.23293154v3" target="_blank">KCL TEST: an open-source inspired asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 surveillance programme in an academic institution</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Variability in excess deaths across countries with different vulnerability during 2020-2023</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Excess deaths provide total impact estimates of major crises, such as the COVID-19 pandemic.We evaluated excess death trajectories during 2020-2023 across countries with accurate death registration and population age structure data; and assessed relationships with economic indicators of vulnerability. Using the Human Mortality Database on 34 countries, excess deaths were calculated for 2020-2023 (to week 29, 2023) using 2017-2019 as reference, with weekly expected death calculations and adjustment for 5 age strata. Countries were divided into less and more vulnerable; the latter had per capita nominal GDP&lt;USD30,000, Gini&gt;0.35 for income inequality and/or at least 2.5% of their population living in poverty. Excess deaths (as proportion of expected deaths, p) were inversely correlated with per capita GDP (r=-0.60), correlated with proportion living in poverty (r=0.66) and modestly correlated with income inequality (r=0.45). Incidence rate ratio for deaths was 1.06 (95% confidence interval, 1.04-1.08) in the more versus less vulnerable countries. Excess deaths started deviating in the two groups after the first wave. Between-country heterogeneity diminished over time within each of the two groups. Less vulnerable countries had mean p=-0.8% and 0.4% in 0-64 and &gt;65 year-old strata while more vulnerable countries had mean p=7.0% and 7.2%, respectively. Usually lower death rates were seen in children 0-14 years old during 2020-2023 versus pre-pandemic years. While the pandemic hit some countries earlier than others, country vulnerability dominated eventually the cumulative impact. Half of the analyzed countries witnessed no substantial excess deaths versus pre-pandemic levels, while the other half suffered major death tolls.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.04.24.23289066v2" target="_blank">Variability in excess deaths across countries with different vulnerability during 2020-2023</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Prediction of mental well-being from individual characteristics and circumstances during the COVID-19 pandemic</strong> -
<div>
The “Mental Health Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on NIMH Patients and Volunteers” study was a longitudinal study launched in spring 2020 by researchers at NIMH, to investigate the effect of the emerging COVID-19 pandemic on mental health. For each participant, the study collected personal characteristics, such as demographics, psychological traits, and clinical history, together with personal circumstances at regular intervals during their enrollment in the study. In this paper, we examine the degree to which a variety of mental health outcomes over time for an individual can be predicted from personal characteristics and their changing circumstances, using regression models trained on other study participants. We find that it is possible to predict the variation of a participant’s mental health outcomes from time point to time point, for most of the outcomes we consider. This capability is dominated by information about outcome at the point of enrollment in the study, but can be improved by considering personal characteristics and circumstances.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://psyarxiv.com/7enqw/" target="_blank">Prediction of mental well-being from individual characteristics and circumstances during the COVID-19 pandemic</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Discovery of Novel Allosteric Sites of SARS-CoV-2 Papain-Like Protease (PLpro)</strong> -
<div>
Papain-like protease (PLpro) is a viral protease found in some coronaviruses, including SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. Inhibition of PLpro activity could potentially limit viral replication, making it an attractive target for antiviral drug development. This work describes the discovery of novel allosteric residues of SARS-CoV-2 PLpro that can be targeted with antiviral drugs. First, a computational analysis was performed to identify potential druggable pockets on the surface of SARS-CoV-2 PLpro. The computational analysis predicted three druggable pockets around PLpro’s surface and are located at the interfaces of its four domains. Pocket 1 is located at the interface between the Ub1 and thumb domains, pocket 2 is at the interface between the thumb, finger, and palm domains, and pocket 3 is at the interface between the finger and palm domains. Targeted alanine mutagenesis of selected residues with important structural interactions revealed 14 residues that are essential for maintaining a catalytically active and thermodynamically stable PLpro. Namely, these residues are T10, D12, T54, Y72, and Y83 in pocket 1; Q122, S239, Q237, H275, and S278 in pocket 2; and S212, Y213, Y251, K254, and Y305, in pocket 3. In addition to this, residues that were found important to catalysis were recovered by mutating them to amino acids of similar physicochemical properties to further elucidate the mechanistic properties of the local interactions they make. Experimental work confirms essential contacts are present in the allosteric sites of PLpro that could be targeted with non-competitive inhibitors as novel therapeutics against COVID-19.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.05.16.540953v2" target="_blank">Discovery of Novel Allosteric Sites of SARS-CoV-2 Papain-Like Protease (PLpro)</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Study of the protective OAS1 rs10774671-G allele against severe COVID-19 in Moroccans suggests a North African origin for Neanderthals</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Objectives: The clinical presentation of COVID-19 has shown high variability between individuals, which is partly due to genetic factors. The OAS1/2/3 cluster was found to be strongly associated with COVID-19 severity. We aimed to examine this locus for the occurrence of the critical variant, rs10774671, and its respective haplotype blocks within the Moroccan population. Methods: The frequency of SNPs at the cluster of OAS immunity genes was assessed from an in-house database in 157 unrelated individuals of Moroccan origin. The OAS1 exon 6 was sequenced by Sanger9s method in 71 asymptomatic/mild and 74 moderate/severe individuals positive for SARS-CoV-2. Genotypic, allelic, and haplotype frequencies of three SNPs were compared between the two groups. Finally, males in our COVID-19 series were genotyped for the Berber-specific marker E-M81. Results: The prevalence of the OAS1 rs10774671-G allele in present-day Moroccans was 40.4%, close to that of Europeans. However, it was found equally on both the Neanderthal GGG haplotype and the African GAC haplotype with a frequency of 20% each. These two haplotypes, and hence the rs10774671-G allele, were significantly associated with the protection against severe COVID-19 (p = 0.034, p = 0.041, and p = 0.008 respectively). Surprisingly, among Berber men, the African haplotype was absent while the prevalence of the Neanderthal haplotype was close to that of Europeans. Conclusion: The protective rs10774671-G allele of OAS1 was found only in the Neanderthal haplotype in Berbers, the indigenous people of North Africa, suggesting that this region may have served as the stepping-stone for the passage of the hominids to the other continents.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.08.19.23294314v1" target="_blank">Study of the protective OAS1 rs10774671-G allele against severe COVID-19 in Moroccans suggests a North African origin for Neanderthals</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Visceral adipose macrophage content does not associate with body mass index or systemic inflammation in COVID-19: an autopsy study</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Introduction: Adiposity, especially visceral adiposity with elevated body mass index (BMI), is associated with a hyperinflammatory syndrome and poor outcomes in patients with COVID-19. In other diseases such as obesity, type 2 diabetes, and rheumatoid arthritis, systemic inflammation is driven directly by visceral adipose macrophages which release pro-inflammatory cytokines. Currently it is unknown whether visceral adipose tissue macrophage content may similarly explain the observation that COVID-19 patients with elevated BMI are at risk for a hyperinflammatory syndrome and death. Methods: This was a retrospective study of hospitalized adults who died of COVID-19 between March 2020 and June 2020 and underwent autopsy. Visceral adipose tissue macrophage content was quantified by histological staining of visceral adipose tissue samples with CD68, using pericolic fat gathered at autopsy from each subject. Clinical data including inflammatory markers such as erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), C-reactive Protein (CRP), Troponin, D-dimer, Interleukin-6 (IL-6), and ferritin as well as BMI were collected from electronic medical records. Results: A total of 39 subjects were included in this study. There was no association between BMI and visceral adipose tissue macrophage content (Spearman R=0.025, p=0.88). Additionally, there was no association between adipose tissue macrophage content and any of the systemic markers of inflammation measured including ESR, CRP, Troponin, D-dimer, IL-6, and Ferritin (p&gt;0.05 for all markers). Conclusion: Unlike chronic diseases such as obesity, type 2 diabetes, and rheumatoid arthritis, elevated BMI is not associated with increased visceral adipose tissue macrophage content in patients who died of COVID-19. Additionally, among patients who died of COVID-19, visceral adipose tissue macrophage content is not associated with markers of systemic inflammation. These results suggest that the elevations in systemic markers of inflammation-and the hyperinflammatory syndrome often observed during acute COVID-19-does not directly originate from visceral adipose macrophages as it seems to in chronic disease states.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.08.21.23294361v1" target="_blank">Visceral adipose macrophage content does not associate with body mass index or systemic inflammation in COVID-19: an autopsy study</a>
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<li><strong>Drivers and impact of the early silent invasion of SARS-CoV-2 Alpha</strong> -
<div>
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SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern (VOCs) circulated cryptically before being identified as a threat, delaying interventions. Understanding the drivers of such silent spread and its epidemic impact is critical to inform future response planning. Here, we integrated spatio-temporal records of international mobility, local epidemic growth and genomic surveillance into a Bayesian framework to reconstruct the early dissemination of Alpha out of the UK in the first three months after emergence. We found that silent circulation lasted from days to months and was logarithmically associated with sequencing coverage. Social restrictions in certain countries likely slowed down the seeding of local transmission by weeks, mitigating the negative consequences of late detection. Revisiting the initial spread of Alpha supports local mitigation at the destination in case of emerging events.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.08.21.23293488v1" target="_blank">Drivers and impact of the early silent invasion of SARS-CoV-2 Alpha</a>
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<li><strong>Between authority and common sense: development and investigation of a model explaining COVID-19 preventive behaviours</strong> -
<div>
To protect themselves from COVID-19, people follow the recommendations of the authorities, but they also resort to placebos. To stop the virus, it is important to understand the factors underlying both types of preventive behaviour. This study examined whether our model (developed based on the Health Belief Model and the Transactional Model of Stress) can explain participation in WHO-recommended and placebo actions during the pandemic. Model was tested on a sample of 3,346 participants from Italy, Japan, Poland, Korea, Sweden, and the US. It was broadly supported: objective risk and cues to action showed both direct and indirect (through perceived threat) associations with preventive behaviours. Moreover, locus of control, decision balance, health anxiety and preventive coping moderated these relationships. Numerous differences were also found between countries. We conclude that beliefs about control over health and perceived benefits of actions are critical to the development of interventions to improve adherence to recommendations.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://psyarxiv.com/s5up3/" target="_blank">Between authority and common sense: development and investigation of a model explaining COVID-19 preventive behaviours</a>
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<li><strong>SOCIAL COMMUNICATION PATHWAYS TO COVID-19 VACCINE SIDE-EFFECT EXPECTATIONS AND EXPERIENCE</strong> -
<div>
Objective: Negative beliefs about medication and vaccine side-effects can spread rapidly through social communication. This has been recently documented with the potential side-effects from the COVID-19 vaccines. We tested if pre-vaccination social communications about side-effects from personal acquaintances, news reports, and social media predict post-vaccination side-effect experiences. Further, as previous research suggests that side-effects can be exacerbated by negative expectations, we assessed if personal expectations mediate the relationships between social communication and side-effect experience. Method: In a prospective longitudinal survey (N=551), COVID-19 vaccine side-effect information from three sources—social media posts, news reports, and first-hand accounts from personal acquaintances—as well as side-effect expectations, were self-reported pre-vaccination. Vaccination side-effect experience was assessed post-vaccination. Results: In multivariate regression analyses, the number of pre-vaccination social media post views (β = .17) and impressions of severity conveyed from personal acquaintances (β = .42) significantly predicted an increase in pre-vaccination side-effect expectations, and the same variables (βs = .11, .14, respectively) predicted post-vaccination side-effect experiences. Moreover, pre-vaccination side-effect expectations fully mediated the relationship between both sources of social communication and experienced side-effects from a COVID-19 vaccination. Conclusions: This study identifies links between personal acquaintance and social media communications and vaccine side-effect experiences and provides evidence that pre-vaccination expectations account for these relationships. The results suggest that modifying side-effect expectations through these channels may change the side-effects following a COVID-19 vaccination as well as other publicly discussed vaccinations and medications.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://psyarxiv.com/e2bfv/" target="_blank">SOCIAL COMMUNICATION PATHWAYS TO COVID-19 VACCINE SIDE-EFFECT EXPECTATIONS AND EXPERIENCE</a>
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<li><strong>Post-COVID rebound of gonorrhoea in England</strong> -
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With the removal of all COVID-19 restrictions in July 2021, a marked increase in gonorrhoea diagnoses in England was observed. Investigations revealed increases have been widespread, particularly in young people aged 15-to-24 years. Testing numbers have not shown a corresponding increase and have remained below 2019 (pre-pandemic) levels.
</p>
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<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.08.18.23294107v1" target="_blank">Post-COVID rebound of gonorrhoea in England</a>
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</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-clinical-trials">From Clinical Trials</h1>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>THE EFFECT OF ARGININE AND GLUTAMINE ON COVID-19 PATIENTS OUTCOME: A RANDOMIZED CLINICAL TRIAL</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Dietary Supplement: Neomune<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Universitas Sriwijaya;   M. Djamil General Hospital<br/><b>Completed</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Study of Obeldesivir in Children and Adolescents With COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Drug: Obeldesivir<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Gilead Sciences<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Immunogenicity and Safety of AdCLD-CoV19-1 OMI as a Booster: A COVID-19 Preventive Vaccine in Healthy Volunteers</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   COVID-19;   Vaccines<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: AdCLD-CoV19-1 OMI;   Biological: Comirnaty Bivalent 0.1mg/mL (tozinameran and riltozinameran)<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Cellid Co., Ltd.<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Using Text Messages to Boost COVID-19 Vaccine Booking Rate</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   Vaccination Hesitancy;   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Behavioral: Behavioural science-informed text messages;   Behavioral: Control<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   The Behavioural Insights Team;   Public Health England;   Department of Health and Social Care;   NHS England and NHS Improvement<br/><b>Completed</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Digital Health Literacy on COVID-19 for All: Co-creation and Evaluation of Interventions for Ethnic Minorities and Chinese People With Chronic Illnesses in Hong Kong</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   Digital Health Literacy;   COVID-19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Behavioral: Digital health literacy intervention<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   The Hong Kong Polytechnic University<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Ivermectin to Prevent SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) Hospitalisation in Subjects Over 50</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   COVID-19;   SARS-CoV-2<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: Ivermectin;   Drug: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Insud Pharma<br/><b>Terminated</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Methylprednisolone in Patients With Cognitive Deficits in Post-COVID-19 Syndrome (PCS)</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Post-COVID-19 Syndrome<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Drug: Methylprednisolone<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Charite University, Berlin, Germany<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>COVID-19 Vaccination Hesitancy in Adults With Sickle Cell Disease</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   Sickle Cell Disease;   COVID-19 Vaccine;   Vaccine Hesitancy<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Behavioral: SCD-specific COVID-19 vaccination information (SCVI) video<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Duke University;   American Society of Hematology<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Leveraging Community Health Workers to Combat COVID-19 and Mental Health Misinformation in Haiti, Malawi, and Rwanda</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   Mental Health;   COVID-19;   Misinformation<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Behavioral: Card-Sorting Activity (Pre-intervention design);   Behavioral: SMS Crafting (Pre-intervention design);   Behavioral: SMS Messaging<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Harvard Medical School (HMS and HSDM);   Partners in Health<br/><b>Active, not recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Effect of Pulmonary Rehabilitation Among Post-COVID-19 Patients in a Tertiary Care Hospital in Bangladesh</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Pulmonary Pathology<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Behavioral: Pulmonary Rehabilitation<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University, Dhaka, Bangladesh<br/><b>Active, not recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A Study to Learn About New COVD-19 RNA Vaccine Candidates for New Varients in Healthy Individuals</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   SARS-CoV-2 Infection;   COVID-19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Biological: BNT162b2 (Omi XBB.1.5)<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   BioNTech SE;   Pfizer<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Pulmonary Artery Pressure in COVID-19 Survivors</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Pulmonary Hypertension Secondary<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Diagnostic Test: right heart catheterization (RHC).<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Mansoura University Hospital<br/><b>Enrolling by invitation</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Preliminary Efficacy of a Technology-based Physical Activity Intervention for Older Korean Adults During the COVID-19 Pandemic</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   Cardiovascular Health;   Physical Function<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Behavioral: Golden Circle<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign<br/><b>Completed</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Supported Employment COVID-19 Rapid Testing for PWID</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Health Behavior<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Behavioral: Supported Employment<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   University of Oregon<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Study of LAU-7b for the Treatment of Long COVID in Adults</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Long COVID<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: LAU-7b for 3 cycles;   Drug: LAU-7b for 1 cycle, then placebo;   Other: Placebo for 3 cycles<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Laurent Pharmaceuticals Inc.<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-pubmed">From PubMed</h1>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The S1’-S3’ Pocket of the SARS-CoV-2 Main Protease Is Critical for Substrate Selectivity and Can Be Targeted with Covalent Inhibitors</strong> - The main protease (Mpro) of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is a well-characterized target for antiviral drug discovery. To date, most antiviral drug discovery efforts have focused on the S4-S1’ pocket of Mpro; however, it is still unclear whether the S1’-S3’ pocket per se can serve as a new site for drug discovery. In this study, the S1’-S3’ pocket of Mpro was found to differentially recognize viral peptidyl substrates; for instance, S3’ in Mpro strongly favors Phe…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Cyclotheonellazoles D-I, Potent Elastase Inhibitory Thiazole-Containing Cyclic Peptides from <em>Theonella</em> sp. (2131)</strong> - Six new thiazole-containing cyclic peptides, the cyclotheonellazoles D-I (1-6), were isolated from the Australian marine sponge Theonella sp. (2131) with their structures assigned by comprehensive 1D and 2D NMR spectroscopic and MS spectrometric analyses, Marfey’s derivatization studies, and comparison with time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT) calculated ECD data. The Type 2 azole-homologated peptides herein comprise up to five nonproteinogenic amino acids, including the protease…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Assessment of efficacy and safety of endoscopic lung volume reduction with one-way valves in patients with a very low FEV<sub>1</sub></strong> - CONCLUSION: Our study highlights the potential efficacy of one-way valves, even in patients with very low FEV(1), as these patients experienced significant improvements in FEV(1), 6MWD and quality of life. No death was reported, suggesting a good safety profile, even in these high-risk patients.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Prevalence of oral complications in the course of severe SARS-CoV-2 infection under mechanical non-invasive ventilation</strong> - CONCLUSIONS: COVID-19 hospitalised patients with severe symptoms crossing with poor oral health-related conditions. This may exacerbate a response for COVID infection, and play a role in cytokine storm. For Covid-19 management, to inhibit extraoral/intraoral complications, it is recommended to adjust oral hygiene procedures, including antibacterial, protective, moisturising agents after individual oral health assessment.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Possible Mechanisms of Cu and Zn in the Treatment and Prevention of HIV and COVID-19 Viral Infection</strong> - Due to their unique properties and their potential therapeutic and prophylactic applications, heavy metals have attracted the interest of many researchers, especially during the outbreak of COVID-19. Indeed, zinc (Zn) and copper (Cu) have been widely used during viral infections. Zn has been reported to prevent excessive inflammatory response and cytokine storm, improve the response of the virus to Type I interferon (IFN-1), and enhance the production of IFN-a to counteract the antagonistic…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid protein inhibits the PKR-mediated integrated stress response through RNA-binding domain N2b</strong> - The nucleocapsid protein N of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) enwraps and condenses the viral genome for packaging but is also an antagonist of the innate antiviral defense. It suppresses the integrated stress response (ISR), purportedly by interacting with stress granule (SG) assembly factors G3BP1 and 2, and inhibits type I interferon responses. To elucidate its mode of action, we systematically deleted and over-expressed distinct regions and domains. We show that…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A Mixture of Essential Oils from Three Cretan Aromatic Plants Inhibits SARS-CoV-2 Proliferation: A Proof-of-Concept Intervention Study in Ambulatory Patients</strong> - INTRODUCTION: The need for effective therapeutic regimens for non-critically ill patients during the COVID-19 pandemic remained largely unmet. Previous work has shown that a combination of three aromatic plants’ essential oils (CAPeo) (Thymbra capitata (L.) Cav., Origanum dictamnus L., Salvia fruticose Mill.) has remarkable in vitro antiviral activity. Given its properties, it was urgent to explore its potential in treating mild COVID-19 patients in primary care settings.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Peptide foldamer-based inhibitors of the SARS-CoV-2 S protein-human ACE2 interaction</strong> - The entry of the SARS-CoV-2 virus into a human host cell begins with the interaction between the viral spike protein (S protein) and human angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (hACE2). Therefore, a possible strategy for the treatment of this infection is based on inhibiting the interaction of the two abovementioned proteins. Compounds that bind to the SARS-CoV-2 S protein at the interface with the alpha-1/alpha-2 helices of ACE2 PD Subdomain I are of particular interest. We present a stepwise…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>CD36 mediates SARS-CoV-2-envelope-protein-induced platelet activation and thrombosis</strong> - Aberrant coagulation and thrombosis are associated with severe COVID-19 post-SARS-CoV-2 infection, yet the underlying mechanism remains obscure. Here we show that serum levels of SARS-CoV-2 envelope (E) protein are associated with coagulation disorders of COVID-19 patients, and intravenous administration of the E protein is able to potentiate thrombosis in mice. Through protein pull-down and mass spectrometry, we find that CD36, a transmembrane glycoprotein, directly binds with E protein and…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Upper Respiratory Tract OC43 Infection Model for Investigating Airway Immune-modifying Therapies</strong> - Respiratory virus infections initiate and transmit from the upper respiratory tract (URT). Coronaviruses, including OC43, are a major cause of respiratory infection and disease. Failure to mount an effective anti-viral immune response in the nasal mucosa increases the risk of severe disease and person to person transmission highlighting the need for URT infection models to support development of nasal treatments that improve coronavirus anti-viral immunity. We aimed to determine if OC43…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The emergence of SARS-CoV-2 lineages and associated saliva antibody responses among asymptomatic individuals in a large university community</strong> - SARS-CoV-2 (CoV2) infected, asymptomatic individuals are an important contributor to COVID transmission. CoV2-specific immunoglobulin (Ig)-as generated by the immune system following infection or vaccination-has helped limit CoV2 transmission from asymptomatic individuals to susceptible populations (e.g. elderly). Here, we describe the relationships between COVID incidence and CoV2 lineage, viral load, saliva Ig levels (CoV2-specific IgM, IgA and IgG), and ACE2 binding inhibition capacity in…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Management of chronic myelogenous leukemia with COVID-19 and hepatitis B</strong> - The application of immunosuppressive agents and targeted drugs has opened a novel approach for the treatment of hematological tumors, and the application of tyrosine kinase inhibitors for the treatment of chronic myeloid leukemia is one of the landmark breakthroughs that has considerably improved the prognosis of CML patients. However, with the extensive use of TKI, the co-infection of CML patients has become increasingly apparent, especially regarding infectious diseases such as hepatitis B and…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Immunogenicity of BNT162b2 in children 6 months to under 5 years of age with previous SARS-CoV-2 infection, in the era of Omicron predominance</strong> - CONCLUSIONS: Children previously infected with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, developed robust neutralizing antibody response against Omicron variant after single-dose BNT162b2. Children with an interval of &gt; 6 months since COVID-19 infection developed higher neutralizing antibody response compared to those with a 3-to-6-month interval.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Neutralizing antibody and T-cell responses against SARS-CoV-2 variants by heterologous CoronaVac/ChAdOx-1 vaccination in elderly subjects with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease</strong> - CONCLUSION: Heterologous CoVac/ChAd vaccine induced the production of NAb against SARS-CoV-2 WT, Alpha, Beta, and Delta variants, but low for Omicron in COPD patients. Induction of CD4 T-cell subset responses was slightly observed by this vaccine regimen.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Cysteamine-mediated blockade of the glycine cleavage system modulates epithelial cell inflammatory and innate immune responses to viral infection</strong> - Transient blockade of glycine decarboxylase (GLDC) can restrict de novo pyrimidine synthesis, which is a well-described strategy for enhancing the host interferon response to viral infection and a target pathway for some licenced anti-inflammatory therapies. The aminothiol, cysteamine, is produced endogenously during the metabolism of coenzyme A, and is currently being investigated in a clinical trial as an intervention in community acquired pneumonia resulting from viral (influenza and…</p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-patent-search">From Patent Search</h1>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-down" id="daily-dose">Daily-Dose</h1>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" data-aos-anchor-placement="top-bottom" id="contents">Contents</h1>
<ul>
<li><a href="#from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-vox">From Vox</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-national-news">From The Hindu: National News</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</a></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</h1>
<ul>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Mobster Cosplay of Donald Trump</strong> - He’s been indicted on RICO charges, but how does the former President stack up against actual dons? - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-mobster-cosplay-of-donald-trump">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Hidden Archeologists of Athens</strong> - By collecting long-forgotten archeological data, a new project reveals the researchers who toiled unrecognized. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/annals-of-inquiry/the-hidden-archeologists-of-athens">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Invisible Fire on Maui</strong> - For those on the Hawaiian island whose jobs depend on tourism, a period of mourning and recovery has also brought fear for their livelihoods. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/dispatch/maui-hawaii-fire-aftermath-tourism">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>David Zaslav, Hollywood Antihero</strong> - The C.E.O. of a huge conglomerate takes on an entertainment business in turmoil. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/annals-of-communications/can-david-zaslav-make-it-in-hollywood">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Fani Willis’s Indictment of Donald Trump and a Voting-System Breach</strong> - The charges include allegations about a largely overlooked incident in Coffee County, Georgia. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/fani-williss-indictment-of-donald-trump-and-a-voting-system-breach">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-vox">From Vox</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>The escalating viral success of right-wing country music</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="A man in a T-shirt and dark glasses stands in front of a microphone and plays a guitar. Several American flags make a backdrop behind him." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/1fNqGOKdCNeFZrv-D7WW6a1ehKo=/36x0:4236x3150/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72569730/1610627754.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Oliver Anthony performs against a backdrop of American flags at the Eagle Creek Golf Club on August 19, 2023, in Moyock, North Carolina. | Mike Caudill/Billboard via Getty Images
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Conservatives have learned how to gamify the Billboard charts. What does that mean for music?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="EunY1r">
If you’ve paid any attention lately to mainstream radio, Billboard rankings, or viral internet hits, you may have noticed that country music has been getting all the attention. In particular, a string of country crossovers has been burning up the charts — each one building on the last in the same culture war controversy.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Q5IWMd">
Perennial country favorite Morgan Wallen has been enjoying a marathon chart-topping streak for his latest album, <em>One Thing at a Time</em> — his first since a leaked 2021 video of the star casually <a href="https://www.tmz.com/2021/02/02/morgan-wallen-n-word-nashville-neighbors/">dropping the n-word</a> nearly cost him his career. One of four singles from the album to zoom up the charts, an ode to a messy breakup called “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TyjgBxIVmEc&amp;pp=ygUYbW9yZ2FuIHdhbGxlbiBsYXN0IG5pZ2h0">Last Night</a>,” has enjoyed a whopping <a href="https://www.billboard.com/charts/hot-100/">28 weeks</a> and counting on the Hot 100, 16 of them in the top spot.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="AT2e3b">
Wallen’s Hot 100 streak was briefly interrupted by Jason Aldean’s viral success for “Try That in a Small Town,” a song replete with <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/2023/8/11/23827919/montgomery-alabama-riverboat-dock-brawl-black-resistance-jason-aldean-try-that-in-a-small-town">thinly veiled references</a> to lynching outsiders. Released in May, the song didn’t make a huge splash until the controversial music video — shot at the site of a historical lynching — dropped in mid-July. The backlash over the video prompted a conservative counter-backlash, which propelled Aldean’s song up the charts — although no sooner had the song hit No. 1 than it <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/jason-aldean-try-that-in-a-small-town-falls-hot-100-chart-1234802602/">tumbled</a> a full 20 spots back down. It’s currently hovering just outside the top 20 on the Hot 100.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kgh3bN">
Hard on the heels of Aldean and Wallen, complete unknown Oliver Anthony went viral in August for his oppressed common-man anthem “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqSA-SY5Hro">Rich Men North of Richmond</a>,” after a <a href="https://www.vox.com/youtube">YouTube</a> user released a video of Anthony performing the song live. Despite lyrics that reference <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/10/9/21504910/qanon-conspiracy-theory-facebook-ban-trump">QAnon</a> themes and mock people on welfare with <a href="https://www.inquirer.com/columnists/attytood/rich-men-north-of-richmond-messi-montana-climate-suit-20230815.html">what many</a> <a href="https://timjwise.medium.com/the-real-problem-with-the-song-rich-men-north-of-richmond-2c0885f4eb43">have read</a> as racist stereotypes, the song is so popular that Anthony now has <a href="http://www.itunescharts.net/us/charts/songs/2023/08/20">18 songs</a> currently ranking in the <a href="https://www.vox.com/apple">Apple</a> Music Top 100. He also just became the <a href="https://www.billboard.com/music/chart-beat/oliver-anthony-music-rich-men-north-of-richmond-number-one-debut-hot-100-1235396681/">first artist in Billboard history</a> to debut at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 without any prior chart history.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gs9EIh">
At a distance, Anthony is a truly mythical success story — until you consider the context of that success. Indeed, the throughline of these recent country hits is not their musical style. Wallen is arguably closer, aesthetically, to a twangy Post Malone than to Anthony, who performs traditional folk, with Aldean somewhere in the middle.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="a17dMy">
Rather, these artists all arguably charted at least in part because they — purposely or not — tapped the vein of conservative resentment that has fueled numerous other consumerist movements this year. From <a href="https://www.vox.com/money/23755227/target-bud-light-pride-conservative-boycott-anti-woke-lgbt">the backlash</a> against Target and Budweiser over their queer and <a href="https://www.vox.com/lgbtq">trans</a>-friendly marketing, to the viral push to promote the anti-human trafficking film <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/23794355/sound-of-freedom-controversy-true-story-qanon"><em>Sound of Freedom</em></a> and its QAnon-adjacent rhetoric, each of these campaigns has arisen out of conservative disgruntlement with the mainstream, a feeling of being ostracized and marginalized. The motivation to “fight back” against the evils of liberal morality increasingly involves wielding individual purchasing power as a way to make a collective statement. Boycotting and promotion have worked in equal measure throughout 2023 for conservatives; both have yielded results.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="nw9S85">
Now, that consumerist mentality has found new subjects: Wallen, Aldean, and Anthony — with other, more unapologetically far-right artists, waiting in the wings.
</p>
<h3 id="e8GFfo">
Morgan Wallen isn’t quite like the others — but context matters
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9TvCQF">
Without the larger context of the era we’re in, Morgan Wallen might not fit into this pattern. After all, one of the traits of his music, especially in the newest album, is a kind of strategic ambivalence about his own dirtbaggery. His songs are replete with the catchy themes country lyrics are well-known for: wordplay, whiskey, and pickup trucks, with wry flourishes of bitterness and self-defeat.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zvh8ey">
Through songs like “Last Night” and “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcHZwe0YsKg">Money On Me</a>” — key lyric: “I wouldn’t put my money on me” — his lyrical stand-in comes across as a slightly guilt-ridden white guy, a man who vaguely understands that he’s gained an uncomfortable level of status and privilege but not someone who has the insight to do more than sardonically reference his past missteps. It’s the kind of post-ironic take on modern masculinity we’re more used to seeing in pop stars like Post Malone or even <a href="https://www.vox.com/22264459/the-weeknd-super-bowl-halftime-blinding-lights-tiktok-dance-meme">The Wknd</a>. His music goes well with a diet of pop or country, and his reputation as a nice guy made it go down easy.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dHkxYs">
At least it did until Wallen’s <a href="https://apnews.com/article/1d58b32a83881fc3f158c6287a91c04b">reputation</a> as a <a href="https://www.al.com/life/2020/10/see-morgan-wallen-living-it-up-with-fans-in-tuscaloosa-after-bama-game.html">partier</a> backfired on him. Wallen had weathered minor storms before, including getting caught going maskless during a <a href="https://www.al.com/life/2020/10/see-morgan-wallen-living-it-up-with-fans-in-tuscaloosa-after-bama-game.html">party weekend</a> in Alabama in 2021 — a stunt that resulted in <em>Saturday Night Live</em> <a href="https://www.vulture.com/2020/10/snl-morgan-wallen-musical-guest-covid-canceled.html">canceling</a> a scheduled appearance of Wallen as musical guest. (They rescheduled.) Then, in February 2021, <a href="https://www.tmz.com/2021/02/02/morgan-wallen-n-word-nashville-neighbors/">TMZ published footage</a> of what appears to be an intoxicated Wallen returning to his Nashville home late following a night on the town. After making a ruckus on the street with his party, he calls to a friend to “take care of this pussy-ass n*****.” As many people, including BuzzFeed News’ Elamin Abdelmahmoud, <a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/elaminabdelmahmoud/morgan-wallen-racial-reckoning-country-music">pointed out</a>, Wallen dropped that racial slur with zero hesitation. He comes across in the video as someone who uses it all the time.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9wKwtm">
“I have no trouble imagining he said it like he’s familiar with it, like his mouth has been there before,” Abdelmahmoud wrote. “This is an artist who has traded on his authenticity since he first came on the scene … Wallen has positioned himself as a mullet-and-blue-jeans, what-you-see-is-what-you-get kind of guy. And it’s impossible to watch the video without this in mind.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WGYqFz">
That nod to authenticity is crucial because one of the hallmarks of country music marketability is that the star is who they say they are; <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-country/how-midland-epitomize-the-authenticity-debate-in-country-music-206194/">artists who fail the authenticity test</a> don’t often fare well. The 30-year-old Wallen, who grew up in a bona fide small town in East Tennessee before moving to the Knoxville suburbs as a teen, may have gotten his start through the most Hollywood of methods — a <a href="https://talentrecap.com/morgan-wallen-didnt-know-what-the-voice-was-when-he-auditioned/">season-six stint</a> on <em>The Voice</em> — but he’s a good ol’ country boy who subsequently worked his way up through the Nashville ranks. He’s got a famous mullet; he <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEBUv6XPumI">goes hunting</a>; he even <a href="https://musicmayhemmagazine.com/watch-morgan-wallen-recalls-his-journey-on-the-voice-how-he-got-his-start-in-country-music/">speculates</a> he got booted off <em>The Voice</em> because he chose to sing country instead of pop. Hard to get more authentic than that. But did that also mean Wallen was authentically racist? When he subsequently <a href="https://www.newschannel5.com/news/country-star-morgan-wallen-posts-apology-video-following-use-of-racial-slur">apologized</a>, was that an authentic apology?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ZKqe9G">
The industry repercussions Wallen faced were immediate: Wallen’s record label, Big Loud Records, <a href="https://www.wthr.com/article/news/nation-world/country-star-morgan-wallen-apologizes-after-shouting-racial-slur/507-12a4821c-45b3-40fb-a3ca-f632ee9def9e">suspended</a> his contract “indefinitely.” The Academy of Country Music also <a href="https://deadline.com/2021/02/morgan-wallen-n-word-tmz-radio-cancel-1234686338/">rescinded</a> his eligibility for the upcoming Country Music Awards cycle. Radio and <a href="https://www.vox.com/tv">television</a> networks from IHeart to CMT dropped his music from their playlists and censured the artist.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rZJpWQ">
Yet Wallen’s efforts to apologize might not have ultimately mattered at all. His use of the racist slur had an immediate and profoundly positive impact on his sales. <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/anniereuter/2021/02/06/morgan-wallens-digital-sales-soar-after-being-dropped-by-label-country-radio/?sh=751708957591">According to</a> a Billboard report, in the days following the leaked TMZ video, Wallen’s sales increased by 339 percent in the US, jumping from 5,000 copies sold the day before the leak to 22,500 copies sold the day after. (Lest you think the bump in popularity might have been due to his gracious apology, note that the sales increase happened immediately; Wallen didn’t release his full apology video via <a href="https://www.vox.com/instagram-news">Instagram</a> until a week later.) By the end of the year, his most recent album, <em>Dangerous</em>, was the bestselling album of 2021, and <a href="https://www.digitalmusicnews.com/2021/07/13/morgan-wallen-sales-best-selling-artist/">it wasn’t close</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="oVhdmf">
One could argue that Wallen, of all three singers, is the <a href="https://www.vox.com/politics/2023/5/31/23742373/chick-fil-a-boycott-controversy-conservative-backlash">Chick-fil-A</a> to a crop of <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna5955056">Cracker Barrels</a>: That is, he’s the offering that’s just mainstream and appealing enough to override any moral objections the average listener might have to his music. After all, he was drunk and he did apologize. There’s still room for growth and change. If Wallen can turn his mea culpas — <a href="https://www.vulture.com/2021/09/morgan-wallen-anti-racism-donations-questioned.html">sincere or not</a> — into one of the most lucrative comebacks of the decade, perhaps that’s a sign of nothing deeper than slick songwriting and the public’s willingness to forgive and forget.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DsE7rw">
It’s also likely Wallen’s music resonates with the type of fan who, like Wallen himself, doesn’t want to introspect too deeply. And as with so many other aspects of the culture war, there are plenty of apologists around to do the work of redeeming Wallen — a guy who, after all, is just trying to have a good time. Ultimately, his ambivalence works in his favor.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="G6CY10">
Yet it’s much harder to make a similar argument about the other two country artists who each, in succession, interrupted “Last Night”’s Hot 100 streak. Their success, coming alongside Wallen’s, makes Wallen’s feel a little grimier; “Try That In a Small Town” and “Rich Men North of Richmond” are anything but ambivalent.
</p>
<h3 id="NYqvbZ">
Jason Aldean makes the subtext text with a controversial music video
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LbLjGT">
Jason Aldean’s music frequently gets classed within the nebulous subgenre sometimes known as “<a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-country-lists/baby-you-a-song-bro-countrys-30-biggest-bangers-919249/">bro-country</a>” — a group of unapologetically dude-ish male country artists, including artists like Wallen and the Florida Georgia Line. Exactly what’s wrapped up in the “bro” ethos varies from artist to artist, but a refusal to be cowed by <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/21437879/stay-woke-wokeness-history-origin-evolution-controversy">woke</a> politics certainly seems to lurk at the edges. In 2015, <a href="https://www.billboard.com/music/music-news/margo-price-jason-aldean-blackface-try-that-in-a-small-town-1235374941/">Aldean wore blackface</a> at a party, an act his publicist <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/nov/10/jason-aldean-wore-blackface-for-halloween-costume">confirmed</a> but for which Aldean has never apologized. Instead, the country music veteran who won the CMA Album of the Year award in 2011, has doubled down on his controversial and, to many, blatantly racist provocations as an artist.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="iAka5F">
Aldean has lambasted the label of “bro country,” calling it condescending. “It’s meant to describe guys whose songs are all about pickup trucks, drinking beer, and girls. It’s meant to talk down to us,” he <a href="https://www.billboard.com/music/features/jason-aldean-blue-collar-america-7502841/">told Billboard</a> in 2016. “They haven’t bothered to listen to the body of work I’ve recorded over the years.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4TllSq">
Many might argue, though, that the problem with Aldean’s body of work is not that no one is listening to it but that they are listening and they approve. For instance, the lyrics to Aldean’s “Small Town” <a href="https://variety.com/2023/music/opinion/jason-aldean-try-that-in-a-small-town-worst-country-song-video-column-1235673177/">heavily insinuate</a> that Southern lynch mobs are alive and well and ready to come for anyone who transgresses on (white) small-town values. He also advocates stockpiling weapons in case the government tries to physically take them away from gun owners — popular rhetoric among gun rights extremists. When a song like that enjoys a viral popularity boost, it’s unsettling.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ZkrQQM">
It’s also difficult to disentangle the <a href="https://www.vox.com/internet-culture">fandom</a> for the song from the backlash to the song and then the subsequent counter-backlash. “Small Town” became one of the <a href="https://www.billboard.com/music/chart-beat/jason-aldean-try-that-in-a-small-town-number-one-hot-100-country-hits-top-three-1235382220/">few songs in history</a> to simultaneously top both the Hot Country and Hot 100 Billboard charts — but only after all of <a href="https://www.vox.com/media">the media</a> attention given to its racist subtext. That implies that rather than media alarmism decreasing interest in the song, its target audience flocked to it because of its coded racism and references to violence.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Pvvnit">
In the end, Aldean’s song only lasted a moment atop the Hot 100. Still, it’s a significant achievement for a certain type of disgruntled conservative; after all, it’s likely many more people watched Aldean’s music video, with its codes and dog whistles, than would have paid attention to the song without the accompanying controversy. In addition to the video’s use of a location with a fraught racial history, Aldean uses stock footage taken from protests in Canada, <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/jason-aldean-try-that-in-a-small-town-canadian-protest-video-1234791776/">filmed well before</a> the Black Lives Matter movement. Apparently, this footage appeared alongside unlicensed footage of actual Black Lives Matter protests (which has since <a href="https://variety.com/2023/music/news/jason-aldean-video-edited-blm-footage-try-that-small-town-1235680869/">reportedly been removed</a>) to create a conflation between violent protests and the <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/6/12/21279619/protesters-police-violence-philadelphia-los-angeles-washington-dc">primarily</a> <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/6/7/21283014/protests-george-floyd-cities-across-world-larger">peaceful</a> Black Lives Matter protests. This conflation implies that rioting, looting, and disorder is what “small towns” in the modern US are up against. The “authenticity” argument might normally work against Aldean here — he’s singing about a small town despite <a href="https://www.vulture.com/2023/07/jason-aldeans-offensive-small-towns.html">never having lived anywhere smaller</a> than mid-sized Macon, Georgia — but the song’s popularity among its target audience seems to have forestalled criticism.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TnySCr">
And while the song didn’t last at the top of the charts, it has yet to drop off of them. In fact, on the iTunes charts, where Anthony’s songs have flooded the rankings, “Small Town” has <a href="http://itunescharts.net/us/charts/songs/2023/08/21">shot back up</a> to No. 3 on the Top 100 list, right behind Anthony. That’s probably not a coincidence.
</p>
<h3 id="pzWWkN">
Oliver Anthony brings QAnon bugbears and overt welfare fat-shaming to bluegrass YouTube
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="t9FzGm">
As difficult as it is to claim that Aldean’s song is not racist, many have tried — including Aldean himself, who <a href="https://twitter.com/Jason_Aldean/status/1681382697875144717">claimed</a> that it was about “the feeling of community” and the desire for a return to “a sense of normalcy.” Even though in practice <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/2023/8/11/23827919/montgomery-alabama-riverboat-dock-brawl-black-resistance-jason-aldean-try-that-in-a-small-town">that logic falls apart</a>, it clearly has its appeal to a particular audience. Across his burgeoning repertoire, Oliver Anthony’s lyrics voice a similar rhetoric — the idea that he is “an old soul” trapped in “a new world.” The new world, Anthony heavily implies, is indolent, hypocritical, and oppressive. Although Anthony has achieved massive popularity in a short time for the blunt, angry edge of these lyrics, they mask a much deeper, uglier type of ideology.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bqRhYn">
“Rich Men” has drawn over 30 million views in the week since YouTube user radiowv, Anthony’s co-manager, uploaded an acoustic performance of it. In it, Anthony strums a guitar and wails impassioned lyrics with familiar country themes about the plight of the working-class man who suffers at the expense of the “rich men north of Richmond.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="i6ooiw">
Anthony’s articulation of these themes — the working man is overworked, overtaxed, and exploited — has won him a huge outpouring of praise from the audiences that have flocked to stream the song since its release. In between these more universalized themes, however, is a jarring and discordant resentment directed at people on welfare, with all of the <a href="https://www.vox.com/2016/8/22/12583376/welfare-reform-history-clinton-lillie-harden">embedded racism</a> that implies. “Lord, we got folks in the street, ain’t got nothin’ to eat / And the obese milkin’ welfare,” Anthony sings. “Well, God, if you’re 5-foot-3 and you’re 300 pounds / Taxes ought not to pay for your bags of Fudge Rounds.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="iz287W">
Conservatives have long rallied around demonizing the welfare state. One reason for that is that even though <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/07/19/what-the-data-says-about-food-stamps-in-the-u-s/">white people receive more public assistance</a> than Black people, many conservatives view welfare as a system set up to help urban Black families. And although research has <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2015/11/20/9764324/welfare-cash-transfer-work">repeatedly shown</a> that welfare recipients work no less and often work more<em> </em>while on welfare, conservatives often view those families as undeserving grifters living off federal funds instead of helping themselves. The term “welfare queen,” for example, frequently gets used as <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2013/12/20/255819681/the-truth-behind-the-lies-of-the-original-welfare-queen">a racist dog whistle</a>. In 1970, the one-hit country wonder “Welfare Cadilac” [sic] drew criticism as “<a href="https://slate.com/culture/2023/08/oliver-anthony-rich-men-north-of-richmond-lyrics-welfare-cadillac.html">disgustingly racist</a>” when it hit the charts.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xYmhZM">
Anthony’s abrupt shift from rich men to fat-shaming welfare recipients makes it very difficult to read the song in its entirety as merely a populist working-class anthem. There’s also a muddy reference to Jeffrey Epstein’s island estate, a line that seems to position Anthony as QAnon-adjacent; he also <a href="https://twitter.com/BenLorber8/status/1691457076357431296">appears to be a proponent</a> of antisemitic conspiracies about 9/11.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vxwIyL">
As an unknown folk singer from West Virginia, Anthony — who’s <a href="https://twitter.com/jason_howerton/status/1692204844927307929">purported</a> to be a high-school drop-out living in a $750 camper, writing music while struggling with his <a href="https://www.vox.com/mental-health">mental health</a> — had no real music industry experience. His manager runs the tiny West Virginia YouTube channel where his songs were first uploaded. In a YouTube video uploaded alongside the release of his songs, Anthony <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmxyMJd7IQ8">describes himself</a> as a political centrist.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4caaKe">
His songs, nonetheless, have been <a href="https://www.avclub.com/rich-men-north-of-richmond-oliver-anthony-explainer-1850735938">championed</a> by many prominent conservatives, including several writers for Ben Shapiro’s <em>Daily Wire</em>, and multiple established musical artists such as former Mumford and Sons member <a href="https://thespectator.com/book-and-art/oliver-anthony-sorry-state-rolling-stone/">Winston Marshall</a>. Despite <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/CountryMusicStuff/comments/15pjzzv/is_this_oliver_anthony_guy_an_industry_plant/">myriad</a> <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/CountryMusicStuff/comments/15pjzzv/is_this_oliver_anthony_guy_an_industry_plant/">accusations</a> that Anthony’s virality has been manufactured by music industry conservatives and right-wing extremists, it appears, per <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/21/arts/music/rich-men-north-of-richmond-oliver-anthony.html">reporting</a> by the New York Times, that Anthony’s song went viral organically — or at least, not because of paid industry manipulation. Instead, fans of the song utilized longstanding chart-gaming tactics <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/22337317/k-pop-us-radio-play-statistics-bts-dynamite-butter-loona-star">codified by K-pop fans</a> and other pop music stans, like buying the song and all of Anthony’s other offerings via iTunes in order to increase their Billboard ranks. The song was also streamed over 17 million times in its first week alone.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VfgPnw">
But the audiences for Anthony’s music and the average K-pop band share very little overlap. Instead, we seem to be witnessing a new arena for gamified conservative rancor.
</p>
<h3 id="JUHXxQ">
Is this the future of country music? Not entirely.
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tMUWol">
It’s not that the country music industry itself is at fault for the virality of these three artists. While the industry continues to struggle with <a href="https://www.billboard.com/music/country/nashville-black-executives-country-progress-update-9591428/">marginalizing</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/charley-pride-country-music-has-obscured-and-marginalised-its-black-roots-151937">even erasing</a> Black artists, it has diversified and made room for genre-stretching interpretations of what “country music” is, from <a href="https://www.vox.com/2019/8/23/20826730/lil-nas-x-old-town-road-vma-podcast">Lil Nas X</a> to Brandi Carlile and Sturgill Simpson — though <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-country/sturgill-simpson-i-will-be-blackballed-from-the-industry-251686/">not without controversy</a> along the way. Even anodyne singers like Keith Urban have <a href="https://www.theverge.com/tldr/2017/11/8/16624916/keith-urban-harvey-weinstein-female-song-lyrics-listen">tentatively addressed</a> issues like Me Too.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vlAAJ6">
What’s more, it’s not as though the entire Hot 100 chart is just this now. There are still, thankfully, so-far-untainted country artists making the rounds. There’s Luke Combs’ popular cover of “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fr7oYjnt3bM">Fast Car</a>” alongside Chris Stapleton’s “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXyUUUFtNJc">White Horse</a>” and several other artists whose music routinely enjoys crossover appeal.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GDGDE3">
But it’s also worth noting that <a href="http://itunescharts.net/us/charts/songs/2023/08/21">further down</a> the iTunes chart is an even more toxic musical group. Tom MacDonald and Adam Calhoun, who Rolling Stone previously called “<a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/the-right-wing-troll-rappers-are-coming-1341251/">troll rappers</a>,” may not have the sound of country music, but they seem to have tapped the same well of reactionary extremist conservative ire; their songs, like “Your America” and “American Flag,” are rife with virulent racist, anti-LGBTQ rhetoric, and particularly hateful anti-trans lyrics. Last week, while Anthony went viral, MacDonald and Calhoun floated higher and higher on the list before finally falling — but not completely off.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ozBjbk">
Their presence in the rankings is a pernicious indicator that more of this might be on the way. It’s also, perhaps, a clue that none of this is about country artists, authentic or not; that ultimately, none of it is about the music at all.
</p></li>
<li><strong>Who is running for president in 2024? Meet the GOP candidates</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="Photos of Republicans running for president in 2024: Donald Trump, Ron DeSantis, Chris Christie, Mike Pence, Tim Scott, Asa Hutchinson, Nikki Haley, Vivek Ramaswamy, Larry Elder, Will Hurd, Francis Suarez, and Doug Burgum." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/UNrOmt0xNeDqAtsg4gZLPtwF9HU=/243x0:1683x1080/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72005471/RepublicanLandingPage_Lede.78.png"/>
<figcaption>
Vox; Associated Press; Getty Images
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The GOP field is as crowded as ever ahead of the first Republican debate.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="u8jrm8">
<a href="https://www.vox.com/donald-trump">Donald Trump</a> remains the favorite of <a href="https://www.vox.com/politics/2023/2/23/23611828/2024-republican-presidential-candidates-trump-hurd">GOP primary</a> voters. But that hasn’t stopped another 14 candidates from jumping into the race for the Republican nomination in the hopes that they can dethrone him — or at least interview for a position in the next administration.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YLBYce">
The former president, who <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/23436640/donald-trump-announce-run-presidential-campaign-2024">announced his candidacy in November</a>, has been <a href="https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/polls/president-primary-r/2024/national/">increasingly dominant in polling</a>. His closest competitor, <a href="https://www.vox.com/ron-desantis">Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis</a>, is trailing him by <a href="https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2024/president/us/2024_republican_presidential_nomination-7548.html">more than 40 percentage points</a> on average as of late August.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TGU0aD">
Seven others have qualified for the first GOP debate Wednesday night, which Trump has opted to skip altogether:
</p>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rmUYrW">
North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum
</li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LAsE52">
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie
</li>
<li id="X0oxjQ">
Former South Carolina Gov. <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2023/2/14/23599194/nikki-haley-donald-trump-2024-presidential-campaign">Nikki Haley</a>
</li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ZfHuDP">
Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson
</li>
<li id="jFvbkY">
Former Vice President <a href="https://www.vox.com/mike-pence">Mike Pence</a>
</li>
<li id="tgjLC5">
Entrepreneur <a href="https://www.vox.com/2024-elections/23720391/vivek-ramaswamy-affirmative-action-woke-capitalism-ideas">Vivek Ramaswamy</a>
</li>
<li id="Ptj3Lv">
South Carolina Sen. <a href="https://www.vox.com/2023/5/22/23731910/tim-scott-2024-presidential-candidate">Tim Scott</a>
</li>
</ul>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JefzRE">
All are currently polling in single digits but likely hoping the debate creates an opportunity to replace a weakened DeSantis, weighed down by campaign missteps, as the definitive alternative to Trump.
</p>
<aside id="c7ozQG">
<div>
</div>
</aside>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vhjtmX">
It’s unclear, however, whether anyone can launch a viable challenge to Trump, despite <a href="https://www.vox.com/politics/2023/6/14/23761186/trump-indictment-senate-republicans-2024-election">some Republicans seeing him as a liability</a> in a general election. Not only is Trump the subject of <a href="https://www.vox.com/politics/2023/6/9/23755468/trump-jail-criminal-indictment-explained-espionage-cannon">several ongoing civil and criminal investigations</a>, but he’s <a href="https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/polls/favorability/donald-trump/">broadly unpopular</a> among Americans. He lost his reelection bid in 2020, and his chosen candidates underperformed in the<a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/23357154/2022-midterm-elections-guide"> 2022 midterms</a>. But, far from turning off the base, all of that has only further entrenched Trump’s support among Republican voters.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zZx7Vh">
Here’s everything you need to know about the GOP contenders.
</p>
<h3 id="RUNBGW">
The GOP leaderboard
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mlTgo6">
So far, the primary has shaped up to be a lopsided two-way contest between Trump and DeSantis. It’s not clear that DeSantis has what it takes to best Trump, his former mentor who remains beloved by the base despite the criminal charges against him. That could leave room for another candidate, potentially Ramaswamy, who’s polling a distant third, to emerge as a credible challenger to Trump during the debates.
</p>
<h4 id="p1Qm4y">
<strong>Former President Trump</strong>
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="S16KnO">
The GOP primary has been overshadowed by the criminal charges against Trump in the four cases over his involvement in the January 6, 2021, insurrection, <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020-presidential-election"></a>his retention of classified documents after he left office, and hush money payments made during his 2016 campaign. He now faces a total of 91 counts and potential prison time.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/HJOFg4N4BD2qBsNu1Tyao5W46oo=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24866943/1610325359.jpg"/> <cite>Brandon Bell/Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
Republican presidential candidate and former US President Donald Trump speaks during a rally at the Steer N’ Stein bar at the Iowa State Fair on August 12 in Des Moines.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="63D4en">
Fighting the charges has in some respects weighed down Trump’s campaign: He has used <a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-legal-bills-pac-defense-fund-campaign-filing-2024-36fe10e4988a56de34f120cff38e1552#:~:text=An%20analysis%20of%20campaign%20finance,legal%20woes%20began%20in%20earnest.">at least $59.2 million</a> of his campaign funds to pay his legal bills, and his court dates will continue to interfere with his busy campaign schedule. But the court cases have also seemed to boost Trump’s popularity among the Republican base, as he has only expanded his polling lead following each indictment. That would suggest that his supporters believe the cases are indeed the product of a “political witch hunt,” as Trump has often spuriously claimed.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="aTCdAc">
That may help Trump win the primary. However, it remains to be seen whether these indictments will cause moderates and independents to turn away from the former president. If Trump were to lose those voters, that could cause serious problems for him. In<a href="https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/polls/president-general/2024/"> head-to-head matchups</a> versus <a href="https://www.vox.com/joe-biden">President Joe Biden</a> over the last month, some polls have Trump winning by as much as 8 percentage points, while others have him losing by as much as 13 percentage points. Much could change before November 2024, but should Trump be his party’s nominee, those numbers suggest a tight race in which losing moderates and independents could be the difference between victory and defeat.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xE1ynA">
Despite this, Trump isn’t facing much criticism from his right flank, with his Republican opponents treading lightly in using the investigations against him to attack him as unfit for another term. Recognizing his continued grip on the Republican primary voters and the risk of alienating them, the candidates have largely refrained from criticizing Trump directly. But in so doing, they have also struggled to carve out distinct lanes and present a clear argument for why the party should dump Trump.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Gk6guR">
A second Trump term would likely be <a href="https://www.vox.com/2023/5/13/23708595/trump-second-term-cnn-town-hall">more radical than the first</a>. He came into office in 2016 surrounding himself with members of the conservative establishment who tempered his worst impulses. The next time around, he would likely replace those people with loyalists who would advance his own interests, including <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/08/constitutional-crisis-second-trump-term/674872/">making his legal problems go away</a>.
</p>
<h4 id="HTXRAK">
<strong>Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis</strong>
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vUSmf6">
DeSantis was seen as the most viable challenger to Trump. He won reelection by nearly 20 points in 2022, helping usher a red wave into the once-swing state of Florida even though Republican candidates underperformed practically everywhere else in the midterms. But he’s running far behind Trump in the polls, and there are questions as to whether he can run a campaign that feels distinct from MAGA but still has<a href="https://www.vox.com/politics/23736786/ron-desantis-2024-presidential-run"> enough general appeal</a> to be successful.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="Republican presidential candidate Florida Governor Ron DeSantis listens as his wife Casey speaks during a campaign rally at Port Neal Welding Company on May 31, 2023 in Salix, Iowa." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Z_dePLkHQFKGie_gS-P0g36Wt4o=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24698948/GettyImages_1494914230.jpg"/> <cite>Scott Olson/Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
Ron DeSantis at a campaign rally in Salix, Iowa, on May 31, 2023.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dQGPIn">
DeSantis has been carefully cultivating a national profile for years by making Florida a locus of conservative policymaking that has inspired copycat legislation across the US. He’s promoted popular conservative stances on nearly every culture war issue, including attacking <a href="https://www.vox.com/lgbtq">LGBTQ</a> rights,<a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/8/13/22622168/ron-desantis-florida-covid-response-failures"> minimizing the risks of Covid-19</a>,<a href="https://www.vox.com/policy/2023/4/5/23668272/florida-abortion-desantis-republicans-six-weeks-gop"> curtailing abortion access</a>, and<a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/23593369/ron-desantis-florida-schools-higher-education-woke"> eliminating parts of school curriculums</a> deemed too liberal. He worked with the state legislature this session to<a href="https://www.vox.com/politics/2023/5/25/23736141/ron-desantis-2024-florida-legislature-policies"> enact that agenda in Florida</a>, which he is touting as his “blueprint” for America.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="FDBLan">
Beyond just legislating to the right, DeSantis has ensured that Florida will likely stay red for the foreseeable future. In the 2022 redistricting cycle, he pushed for<a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/ron-desantis-florida-redistricting-map-scheme"> a new, gerrymandered congressional map</a> that ultimately heavily benefited Republicans; the party flipped three House seats in the midterms. He expanded the base, winning counties like Miami-Dade that Republicans haven’t carried in decades, while appearing to<a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2022/11/10/23451639/midterm-latino-vote-takes-2022"> make more headway with Latino voters</a>. He raised more than<a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2022/11/03/desantis-record-breaking-haul-positions-him-for-2024-00065046"> $200 million last cycle</a>, breaking the record for gubernatorial races.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mOuZrB">
<em>[Related: </em><a href="https://www.vox.com/politics/23733398/ron-desantis-president-2024-election-trump-republican-primary"><em>Make America Florida: Ron DeSantis’s pitch to beat Trump in 2024</em></a><em>]</em>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="SCu3Jr">
Still, he has had a tough few months. He signed an ultra-restrictive<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/04/14/ron-desantis-florida-six-week-abortion-ban/?itid=lk_inline_manual_10"> six-week abortion ban</a> in Florida that some GOP donors worry will be unpalatable to general election voters. He’s locked in a high-stakes<a href="https://www.vox.com/politics/2023/4/26/23699368/disney-ron-desantis-lawsuit-florida-central-tourism-oversight-board"> fight with Disney</a> in which he’s suffered<a href="https://www.vox.com/politics/2023/3/30/23663345/disney-desantis-florida-board-reedy-creek"> loss</a> after<a href="https://www.vox.com/politics/2023/4/20/23691341/ron-desantis-disney-world-board-reedy-creek-florida"> loss</a> after<a href="https://www.vox.com/politics/2023/5/19/23730119/ron-desantis-disney-florida-investment-2024-election"> loss</a>, neutralizing his ability to claim victory over “<a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/21437879/stay-woke-wokeness-history-origin-evolution-controversy">woke</a>” corporations. He has left Trump’s attacks<a href="https://www.vox.com/politics/2023/5/31/23744182/desantis-trump-2024-election-campaign-attacks-abortion-covid-republican-nominee"> largely unanswered</a> for fear of alienating the base. His campaign began with gaffes on subjects from<a href="https://apnews.com/article/ron-desantis-ukraine-republicans-2024-f44acc03f772f393b7f8d452ee26508a"> Ukraine</a> to<a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2023/03/ron-desantis-chocolate-pudding"> chocolate pudding</a> (<a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2023/03/ron-desantis-chocolate-pudding-denial#:~:text=Earlier%20this%20month%2C%20the%20Daily,Washington%2C%20DC%2C%20in%202019.">allegedly</a>), and has recently gone through a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/08/us/politics/desantis-campaign-manager-generra-peck.html">few rounds of restructuring</a>. And there are<a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2023/05/ron-desantis-unlikeable"> questions about his likability</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="64MQIY">
He’s trying to carve out his own lane in the primary by running to the right of Trump on issues like Covid-19 and abortion and attempting to draw a contrast with Trump’s bombastic leadership style. But in many ways, his candidacy doesn’t mark a departure from Trumpism. And that means if DeSantis were to be the GOP candidate for president, he’d really have to contort himself to look like a moderate in a general election against Biden.
</p>
<h4 id="aFwicP">
<strong>Right-wing activist Vivek Ramaswamy</strong>
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7Vpehb">
Ramaswamy may not be seen as a serious contender by some of his Republican rivals, but he is undeniably the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/18/us/politics/vivek-ramaswamy-ron-desantis-republican-primary.html">breakout candidate of 2024</a> who is using his frequent media appearances to boost his profile. Though he’s not yet cracked the double digits in polling averages, he’s now running in third place, behind DeSantis.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/sarvlgl_wzzbCeJZVKBkqcGUCG8=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24696944/1491590376.jpg"/> <cite>Scott Olson/Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy speaks to residents during a town hall meeting in the South Shore neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois, on May 19.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Ko6XUe">
The son of Indian immigrants, a former biotech founder, and author of the New York Times bestseller <em>Woke, Inc.</em>, Ramaswamy made his name railing against socially responsible investing on cable news shows. Over the past few years, he’s been dubbed “<a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/12/19/the-ceo-of-anti-woke-inc">the CEO of Anti-Woke, Inc.</a>” by the New Yorker and has come out with a second book, <em>Nation of Victims: Identity Politics, the Death of Merit and the Path Back to Excellence</em>. Recently, he’s promoted a pledge to pardon Trump if he’s elected president.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="oKnqpI">
In his<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3l6EcHeBt8U"> announcement video</a>, he staked his candidacy on combating the “woke left” and what he referred to as “new secular religions like Covidism, climatism, and gender ideology.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lFgKSX">
“This is psychological slavery, and that has created a new culture of fear in our country that has completely replaced our culture of free speech in America,” he said in the video.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="r88BQp">
His campaign has so far centered on culture wars: He<a href="https://twitter.com/VivekGRamaswamy/status/1628203879639789568"> told</a> former<a href="https://www.vox.com/media"> Fox News</a> host<a href="https://www.vox.com/2023/4/25/23697600/tucker-carlson-tonight-fox-news-dominion-lawsuit"> Tucker Carlson</a> after jumping into the race that his top priorities include ending <a href="https://www.vox.com/2023/6/14/23761092/supreme-court-affirmative-action-college-admissions-race">affirmative action</a>, achieving “complete decoupling” from<a href="https://www.vox.com/china"> China</a>, reenvisioning US<a href="https://www.vox.com/immigration"> immigration policy</a> based on “merit,” and using the American military to combat drug cartels in Central America.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="W70IwC">
While well-known in conservative circles, Ramaswamy would need to find a way to pivot his message to make it more appealing to independents and moderates in a general election.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="RyqHw7">
First, though, he faces rivals with far greater platforms, name recognition, donor networks, and war chests — many of whom arguably pioneered his brand of politics. Even if Trump were to somehow implode, Ramaswamy would still likely face an uphill climb to the nomination.
</p>
<h3 id="EYc4q5">
<strong>The prominent Trump critics</strong>
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="d2i3qZ">
There’s little to be won in campaigning against Trump when most Republican voters still approve of the former president. But that hasn’t stopped several GOP contenders from going on offense. For Pence, attacking Trump is a matter of necessity given his pivotal decision to certify the results of the 2020 election against Trump’s wishes. But others are trying to take an ideological stand and offer Republican voters an off-ramp from MAGA <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy">policies</a> — one that most voters don’t particularly appear to want.
</p>
<h4 id="YAOY84">
<strong>Former Vice President Mike Pence</strong>
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hnQd0U">
Pence’s biggest challenge is stepping out from the shadow of Trump, his onetime running mate from whom he has severed ties.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hPqxU4">
He previously told<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2023/02/22/mike-pence-prefers-alternative-to-donald-trump-in-2024-presidential-election.html"> CNBC</a> that the GOP is “going to have better choices” than the former president. And in an interview with<a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/11/22/1138465389/mike-pence-2024-donald-trump-jan-6-abortion"> NPR</a> last November, he said he thought Trump was “wrong” in insisting that he won the 2020 election and that he was “reckless” with his words and actions on the day of the January 6 insurrection at the US Capitol.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/VMGj-8m2IWyKrkmeO-SWy83s2R0=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24454780/GettyImages_1244790474.jpg"/> <cite>Jabin Botsford/Washington Post via Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
Former Vice President Mike Pence speaks at the Heritage Foundation on October 19, 2022, in Washington, DC.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="f4OQJP">
That might not win him any favor among Trump loyalists. But as a prominent evangelical, Pence is hoping to appeal to religious conservatives’ views on abortion, religious liberty, and education.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0IwAZD">
Though the<a href="https://www.vox.com/scotus"> Supreme Court</a>’s decision to overturn<a href="https://www.vox.com/2022/5/3/23055125/roe-v-wade-abortion-rights-supreme-court-dobbs-v-jackson"> <em>Roe v. Wade</em></a> dampened GOP gains in the midterms, Pence hasn’t tempered his anti-abortion rhetoric. He has called for a national abortion ban and has thrown his weight behind a proposal by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) that would ban abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy, and a<a href="https://www.yahoo.com/now/mike-pence-says-ban-abortion-194000537.html?guccounter=1&amp;guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&amp;guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAE9WV4CCYOG2S7eZg1NnLuoWhC7lVSGg-Kt5ZXqtvOBvjgmkFTI3uNDFS_ZoGyBjPQcmt_YycIaXKEMVAXmVjbkoCdkuZdG-jFiIITugNfgZlZqkqJdoudnkppsROoyBNYMs19DJ9F-uZzrh49KxmvghCWl7ZeBpEWp59BuoipUa"> ban on abortion pills</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Wo6MS7">
Beyond abortion, Pence’s policy group, Advancing American Freedom, has <a href="https://advancingamericanfreedom.com/issues/">laid out a platform</a> that includes an expansion of 529 college savings plans so they can be used for K-12 schools, promoting the rights of <a href="https://www.vox.com/health-care">health care</a> providers to decline to perform certain services on the basis of moral or religious objections, and rolling back <a href="https://www.vox.com/climate">climate change</a>-related regulations.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Kf7ohM">
So far, none of that has proved enough to distinguish him from Trump.
</p>
<h4 id="SzHm4E">
<strong>Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie</strong>
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hlCqBF">
Christie, once a Trump defender, has become one of the former president’s most outspoken critics. Christie has decried Trump’s<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/03/us/politics/chris-christie-trump-debates.html"> reluctance to debate</a> and his unwillingness to accept the results of the<a href="https://www.vox.com/2020-presidential-election"> 2020 election</a>, as well as called the former president a “<a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2023/05/11/christie-trump-cnn-putin-00096393">coward</a>” and “puppet of Putin.” He’s committed not to <a href="https://www.axios.com/2023/03/28/chris-christie-trump-support-2024">support Trump</a> even if the former president wins the Republican nomination.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lRusSN">
“Beware of the leader in this country, who you have handed leadership to, who has never made a mistake, who has never done anything wrong, who when something goes wrong it’s always someone else’s fault. And who has never lost,” Christie <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/06/politics/chris-christie-2024-announcement/index.html">said</a> of Trump shortly after announcing his campaign in June.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/1sBYvP8LNLqAHRGPvpQk35dY_eM=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24696948/1258300187.jpg"/> <cite>Ellen Schmidt/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Tribune News Service via Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie speaks during the annual Republican Jewish Coalition leadership meeting at the Venetian on November 19, 2022, in Las Vegas.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="H9WQg5">
It’s a remarkable 180-degree turn for someone who was previously a close ally of Trump, briefly headed his White House transition team, and helped him prepare for debates in 2020. But it’s not clear how that turn will win him support among the many Republican voters who have rallied behind him since his four<a href="https://www.vox.com/politics/2023/4/4/23648390/trump-indictment-supreme-court-stormy-daniels-manhattan-alvin-bragg"> indictments</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xqK86z">
If anything, Christie’s attacks on Trump might spare other GOP candidates from having to go on offense against the former president, who has been known to eviscerate his opponents with mud-slinging and name-calling. Christie has been on the receiving end of Trump’s attacks before, when they weakened his bid in the<a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/christophermassie/here-are-some-of-the-meanest-things-trump-and-christie-have"> 2016 presidential primary</a>. The former governor finished sixth before ultimately endorsing Trump for the nomination.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Xub1Iu">
Christie has highlighted his record as a moderate governor, though his tenure as New Jersey’s executive was marred by the “Bridgegate” scandal. His aides allegedly orchestrated a plot to close lanes at a bridge that serves as a main artery to New York City in retaliation against a local mayor who did not back his reelection campaign. He continues to deny any knowledge of the plot, despite witnesses in the criminal trial of his aides testifying to the contrary. By the end of his second term, his approval rating had fallen to <a href="https://www.politico.com/states/new-jersey/story/2017/06/14/with-15-percent-approval-christie-is-now-new-jerseys-least-popular-governor-ever-112747#:~:text=The%20Quinnipiac%20University%20poll%20shows,in%20more%20than%2020%20years.">15 percent</a>. As of late August, his polling average in the 2024 race hovered around <a href="https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/polls/president-primary-r/2024/national/">3 percent</a>.
</p>
<h4 id="08WgXb">
<strong>Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson</strong>
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Qd8RX2">
Hutchinson is a longtime Trump critic and has previously<a href="https://abcnews.go.com/ThisWeek/video/asa-hutchinson-announces-2024-bid-republican-nomination-98299880"> told ABC</a> that he thought Trump should withdraw from the race in light of the<a href="https://www.vox.com/politics/2023/3/30/23663972/trump-indicted-grand-jury-what-happens-next"> criminal charges he’s facing</a>. But as a former federal prosecutor who worked on President Bill Clinton’s impeachment, Hutchinson has also acknowledged that Trump probably won’t do that and there’s nothing stopping him from carrying on.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="83YT4h">
“I mean, first of all, the office is more important than any individual person. And so for the sake of the office of the presidency, I do think that’s too much of a sideshow and distraction, and he needs to be able to concentrate on his due process,” Hutchinson said.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VVbRqF">
Hutchinson served eight years as Arkansas governor before stepping down in January because he was term-limited. While in office, he pushed a conservative agenda centered on a near-total ban on abortion without exceptions for cases involving rape and incest, a law banning trans women from participating in school sports teams, and bans on Covid-19 vaccine mandates and state and local mask mandates.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gTfiAH">
He later expressed regret at the lack of exceptions to the abortion ban and that he wanted to<a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/08/04/1024939859/arkansas-governor-reverse-law-let-schools-require-masks"> reverse</a> the ban on mask mandates amid an August 2021 surge in<a href="https://www.vox.com/coronavirus-covid19"> coronavirus</a> cases. That hasn’t been enough for Hutchinson to make much of a mark on the 2024 race; throughout the contest he’s struggled to crack even the single digits.
</p>
<h3 id="c1JZps">
<strong>The South Carolinian donor darlings</strong>
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="HLRmAx">
Haley and Scott both have establishment credentials, are seen as rising stars in the party and have scored the support of <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2023/04/17/nikki-haley-enjoys-early-billionaire-support-in-2024-race.html">some </a><a href="https://thedispatch.com/article/wealthy-gop-donors-are-bullish-on-nikki-haley-for-now/">major</a> <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2023/07/13/top-donors-tim-scott-00106062">Republican </a><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/07/12/tim-scott-fundraising/">donors</a>. All eyes will be on them during the debates to see if they are able to pick up some momentum and keep the money flowing. But they also face the problem of competing for similar constituencies, including in their home state of South Carolina.
</p>
<h4 id="I88UCS">
<strong>Former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley</strong>
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="nIAPz0">
Trump’s US ambassador to the United Nations and former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley has framed herself as a younger, more moderate candidate relative to Trump who can win in a general election. “Republicans have lost the popular vote in seven of the last eight presidential elections. That has to change,” Haley said in her <a href="https://twitter.com/NikkiHaley/status/1625461899218280448?s=20&amp;t=Fp2zg3FGHUVRgQHqGVLtPA">announcement video</a>. “It’s time for a new generation of leadership.”
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/rCBeMVzjbmun-P9VAMyTM0buO5o=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24454777/GettyImages_1247370345.jpg"/> <cite>Greg Hauenstein/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty</cite>
<figcaption>
Former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley listens to a question from the crowd at an Urbandale, Iowa, town hall after announcing her candidacy for president.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gDTHuW">
The daughter of Indian immigrants, Haley is centering her pitch for the presidency on foreign policy. In particular, she’s suggested that she would take a hardline stance against America’s foes abroad. She had one of the<a href="https://www.axios.com/2018/04/25/nikki-haley-most-popular-trump-administration"> highest approval ratings</a> of anyone in the<a href="https://www.vox.com/trump-administration"> Trump administration</a> and was<a href="https://apnews.com/article/united-nations-syria-ap-top-news-international-news-politics-84c3286dd449402e8b0be124252efb29"> well-respected</a> by her peers on the UN Security Council even when espousing controversial policy decisions, such as Trump’s withdrawal from the<a href="https://www.vox.com/iran"> Iran</a> nuclear deal, the Paris climate accords, and the UN Human Rights Council.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="FLCuLq">
In an environment where most Americans cite<a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/468983/cite-gov-top-problem-inflation-ranks-second.aspx"> government and inflation</a> as the top issues facing the US, it’s not clear whether that foreign policy experience will resonate with voters. But Haley has conservative credentials, too.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GYZNVa">
She won the South Carolina governorship in 2011 with the support of the conservative Tea Party wing of the Republican Party and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. She went on to tighten<a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/voter-ID-law"> voter ID laws</a>, oppose Syrian refugee resettlement in the state, and earn bipartisan praise for signing a bill to take down the Confederate flag from the state capitol after a gunman killed nine Black churchgoers in Charleston in 2015. In her announcement video, she hit typical conservative priorities, railing against the “socialist left” while calling for securing the border and fiscal responsibility.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mXOTSo">
But she’s also waded into culture war battles. At a<a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/2024-gop-presidential-candidate-nikki-haleys-anti-trans-dylan-mulvaney-rhetoric-falls-flat-in-new-hampshire"> campaign event</a> in May, she went on a rant against a trans<a href="https://www.vox.com/influencers"> influencer</a> who partnered with Bud Light, a collaboration that resulted in a widespread conservative boycott of the brand. She also declared herself to be “unapologetically pro-life” while avoiding questions about whether she would enact a national abortion ban.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="a2BtIF">
If Haley prevails, she would be the first woman and first Asian American to win the GOP nomination for president, adding to the list of firsts she has already achieved: South Carolina’s first woman governor and the first Indian American to serve in a statewide office there. She’s currently far from the top of the field, however, tending to poll in the middle of the pack.
</p>
<h4 id="n90OIE">
<strong>South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott</strong>
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NEIKDZ">
Scott, the three-term South Carolina senator and only Black Republican in the chamber, has framed much of his candidacy around pushing back against Democrats’ views on systemic racism and other disparities in the US. Over the past few years, he’s repeatedly<a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/8/25/21400661/tim-scott-rnc-speech-republican-trump"> cited his own success</a> as negating the idea that<a href="https://www.vox.com/race"> Black Americans</a> are disadvantaged by systematic racism and as proof that anyone can pull themselves up by their bootstraps.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Ql61AY">
“They know the truth of my life disproves their lies,” Scott said of Democrats in his April launch video. “I know America is a land of opportunity, not a land of oppression. I know it because I’ve lived it.”
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/gdTl3-_1MezlJwjdLj01ImjKcxs=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24696935/1257257698.jpg"/> <cite>Allison Joyce/Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
US Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) announces his run for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination at a campaign event on May 22, 2023, in North Charleston, South Carolina.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8jk9IB">
As a senator, Scott has struck a similar tone on race, acknowledging its role in American life while arguing that racism is largely something that infects individuals rather than being something for society to grapple with. He has previously called out discrimination<a href="https://www.newsweek.com/tim-scott-wants-police-reform-because-hes-been-stopped-18-times-driving-while-black-1588150#:~:text=Senator%20Tim%20Scott%2C%20a%20South,for%20%22driving%20while%20Black.%22"> he’s faced by police</a>, including being pulled over at traffic stops, for example, while calling law enforcement<a href="https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2021/0812/Q-A-Sen.-Tim-Scott-GOP-point-person-on-police-reform"> a “noble” profession</a>. Scott touched on these themes during a listening tour in Iowa and South Carolina earlier this year, urging audiences to acknowledge the progress that the US has made.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hl3mvZ">
As an evangelical, Scott is also making abortion restrictions a pillar of his campaign. He has voiced support for a six-week abortion ban in his home state. He has also said that he would enact a<a href="https://www.axios.com/2023/05/31/tim-scott-2024-abortion-axios-event"> 15-week national ban</a> on abortion or “the<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/elections/candidates/tim-scott-2024/"> most conservative pro-life legislation</a> <a href="https://www.vox.com/congress">Congress</a> can pass” if elected president.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UA8c2Y">
He’s also echoed standard Republican talking points criticizing “Biden liberals” and touting conservative positions on issues like immigration and crime. Legislatively, Scott is known for serving as the GOP’s lead negotiator on police reform and as the sponsor of bipartisan legislation to establish “opportunity zones” that intend to drive investment to low-income areas via tax incentives.
</p>
<h3 id="ePihO5">
<strong>The random Republicans without much of a fighting chance</strong>
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="p4ZSwj">
There’s no telling how much longer these candidates — with their lack of national name recognition and seeming inability to carve out a distinct lane relative to their rivals— will remain in the race for the nomination. All routinely poll at the bottom of the pack, and show few signs of reversing that trend.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="AZF1ZB">
<em>[Related: </em><a href="https://www.vox.com/2024-presidential-election/2023/6/9/23754364/christie-pence-burgum-president-2024-election"><em>Why are all these random Republicans running for president?</em></a><em>]</em>
</p>
<h4 id="vujMon">
<strong>North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum</strong>
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="eEVXVk">
North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum announced his bid in a June<a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/north-dakota-to-the-white-house-economy-energy-presidential-announcement-election-2024-candidate-552a70a0"> Wall Street Journal op-ed</a>, promising to make the<a href="https://www.vox.com/economy"> economy</a> his top priority without mentioning thornier culture war issues: “We need to get inflation under control, cut taxes, lower gas prices and reduce the cost of living,” he wrote.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/f3ZkszL6vintVK4Ct1lvusarJkk=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24866972/1605983999.jpg"/> <cite>Brandon Bell/Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
North Dakota Gov. and Republican presidential candidate Doug Burgum listens to press members after speaking during a campaign rally at the Iowa State Fair on August 10, 2023, in Des Moines.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="O7es6h">
The two-term governor and tech entrepreneur touted his experience leading Great Plains Software, which went public in 1997 and was sold to<a href="https://www.vox.com/microsoft"> Microsoft</a> in 2001 for $1.1 billion in stock. His proceeds from that deal mean he’ll likely be able to self-fund his campaign. He’s highlighted how he “achieved pension reform, helped pass term limits, and enacted the biggest tax cut in state history” this year. He has also set a goal of making North Dakota carbon-neutral by 2030, implementing carbon capture and storage technology while still maintaining<a href="https://www.vox.com/fossil-fuels"> fossil fuel</a> production, which is a major industry in the state.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Wptv3Z">
Burgum is<a href="https://morningconsult.com/governor-rankings/"> well-liked</a> in North Dakota but doesn’t have the national name recognition of some of his GOP rivals, nor is he cast from the Trumpian mold, which has made it difficult for him to break through to primary voters who still love the former president. While he qualified for the first debate, he’s <a href="https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/polls/president-primary-r/2024/national/">consistently struggled to poll above 1 percentage point</a>.
</p>
<h4 id="mqcDce">
<strong>Former Texas Rep. Will Hurd</strong>
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BNr32W">
As a representative of a border district and a moderate, Hurd was an outspoken critic of Trump’s immigration<a href="https://www.vox.com/policy"> policies</a> while serving in<a href="https://www.vox.com/congress"> Congress</a>. Hurd opted not to seek reelection in 2020 because he felt out of step with the hard right turn his party had taken under Trump. However, he joined his Republican colleagues in voting against Trump’s impeachment in 2019.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/el0ePwyIHy_RFrPYOpVbkMU25XM=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24866982/1577349613.jpg"/> <cite>Scott Olson/Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
Republican presidential candidate and former Texas Rep. Will Hurd speaks to guests at the Republican Party of Iowa 2023 Lincoln Dinner on July 28 in Des Moines.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="C9Sbzw">
In his announcement<a href="https://twitter.com/WillHurd/status/1671856495615508480?s=20"> video</a>, Hurd denounced Trump as a “lawless, selfish, failed politician” whom he blamed for Republicans losing control of the House in 2018, as well as the Senate and the White House in 2020. But he also had sharp words for<a href="https://www.vox.com/joe-biden"> President Joe Biden</a>’s policies on immigration, crime, and inflation: “President Biden can’t solve these problems or won’t.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="nC2xQH">
Hurd was known as a bipartisan dealmaker during his time in Congress, breaking with his party on issues such as<a href="https://www.vox.com/lgbtq"> LGBTQ</a> rights, gun control, and its push to repeal the<a href="https://www.vox.com/obamacare"> Affordable Care Act</a>. But given that the Republican Party has only further dug in its heels on MAGA politics since his departure from office, Republican voters haven’t been all that interested in a candidate who reaches across the aisle. Hurd has also struggled to stand out in a field already filled with big names — not to mention all the other lesser-known candidates fighting to increase single-digit poll numbers.
</p>
<h4 id="hNJ7El">
<strong>Miami Mayor Francis Suarez</strong>
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LUVgAF">
Suarez is the only Latino candidate in the race and has previously called on candidates who don’t make the debate stage to <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/francis-suarez-drop-out-failed-qualify-gop-debate-2023-8">drop out</a>. He failed to receive the support required to make the first debate himself, though it’s not clear whether he’ll take his own advice.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="Miami Mayor Francis Suarez Speaks At The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library In California" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/MPXT9gUQmga-kDZApgWjiHnK0zE=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24744702/1498859167.jpg"/> <cite>Mario Tama/Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
Republican presidential candidate and Miami Mayor Francis Suarez delivers remarks at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library on June 15 in Simi Valley, California.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3SU5Tg">
Suarez has staked his long-shot candidacy on his “tough on crime” platform. A<a href="https://sosamericapac.org/"> video</a> released by a pro-Suarez super PAC touts his support for law enforcement and points to his own policies as the source of<a href="https://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/miami-sees-decrease-in-murders-shootings-city-stats/3007274/"> decreasing violent crime rates</a> in Miami in 2023. He’s also taken shots at DeSantis on issues from<a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/video/miami-mayor-francis-suarez-urges-desantis-to-allow-more-local-control-over-covid19-measures/"> his lack of Covid-19 mitigation measures</a> to how he’s handling his<a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/francis-suarez-running-president-miami-mayor/"> ongoing feud with Disney</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9AXehf">
Suarez faces questions about possible corruption as he tries for the nomination. He is<a href="https://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/ethics-commission-eyes-miami-mayors-side-deal-with-developer/3042495/"> under investigation</a> by the Miami-Dade ethics commission for his work for Miami real estate developer Rishi Kapoor, who is being investigated by the FBI and Securities and Exchange Commission. Kapoor allegedly paid Suarez $10,000 per month to aid him in securing government permits for an urban real estate project.
</p>
<h4 id="MxMA8L">
<strong>Radio host Larry Elder</strong>
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="FyN617">
Elder, a conservative radio host and frequent talking head on Fox News, has never held political office but led the race to replace California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, in an unsuccessful recall campaign in 2021. He is now <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4164493-elder-johnson-planning-to-sue-rnc-after-failing-to-make-first-primary-debate/">suing the Republican National Committee</a> after failing to make the debate stage alongside Michigan business leader Perry Johnson, who is also running.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qyLQ3p">
“America is in decline, but this decline is not inevitable. We can enter a new American Golden Age, but we must choose a leader who can bring us there,” he<a href="https://twitter.com/larryelder/status/1649213455310942209"> tweeted</a> of his decision to run for president.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/j6x1IdHv3vhEPvsJalWGTgBGuTw=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24696946/1340438566.jpg"/> <cite>Mario Tama/Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
Then-gubernatorial recall candidate Larry Elder speaks to supporters at an election night event on September 14, 2021, in Costa Mesa, California.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="L7rgd5">
Elder, a vocal Trump supporter, has espoused conservative stances on issues from abortion rights to pandemic restrictions, including mask mandates. And as a Black man, he has critiqued the Black Lives Matter movement and called the idea of systemic racism a “<a href="https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article253718008.html">lie</a>,” though he framed his policies in the recall election as benefiting Black people.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wZiKOE">
He also attributed rising crime in 2021 to a policing pullback spurred by Democratic policies. “When you reduce the possibility of a bad guy getting caught, getting convicted and getting incarcerated, guess what? Crime goes up,” he<a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-08-20/recall-candidate-larry-elder-is-a-threat-to-black-californians"> told the Los Angeles Times</a>.
</p>
<h4 id="vuYOME">
<strong>Michigan business leader Perry Johnson</strong>
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="RL1v4k">
Johnson has funded his campaign with nearly $8 million of his own money. In an attempt to meet the 40,000-donor threshold required to make it on the debate stage, he offered people a $10 gift card for gas in exchange for a $1 donation. The RNC determined, however, that he still didn’t qualify, and for that, he’s joined Elder’s lawsuit against the organization.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/rp2cpVo_rL0EF2QjbUamQdgWx9s=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24866988/1608078777.jpg"/> <cite>Brandon Bell/Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
Republican presidential candidate businessman Perry Johnson speaks during a campaign rally on the Des Moines Register SoapBox stage at the Iowa State Fair on August 11 in Des Moines.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="SeRTA2">
He made his fortune as the founder of Perry Johnson Registrars, which audits and certifies firms that meet international standards for quality management systems.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pulDgs">
Johnson’s platform is centered on his “two-cents plan,” which he argues would reduce the federal deficit and inflation by curbing two cents of federal discretionary spending for every dollar.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XJLb5E">
Johnson previously sought the 2022 Republican gubernatorial nomination in Michigan but was disqualified from the primary after <a href="https://www.freep.com/story/news/politics/elections/2022/05/26/michigan-board-state-canvassers-petition-fraud-republican-governor/9939185002/">submitting too many fake signatures</a> endorsing his candidacy.
</p>
<h4 id="vFQMow">
<strong>Texas pastor and entrepreneur Ryan Binkley</strong>
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="En0FwD">
Binkley has never before sought political office and is probably the least-known candidate. He founded Generational Group, which advises mergers and acquisitions, as well as Create Church in Richardson, Texas, alongside his wife. The proceeds from his business have allowed him to self-fund his campaign.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/-DjgpRcxnf3oxS-GW7R9Xng7QWk=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24866990/1599760135.jpg"/> <cite>Stefani Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
Ryan Binkley, 2024 presidential hopeful, speaks to a reporter at the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines on August 14.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pBIqXa">
He’s running on a Christian message but has also advocated for lowering the <a href="https://www.vox.com/2023/5/9/23715753/debt-ceiling-limit-default-deal-crisis">national debt</a>, immigration reform, education investment in urban areas, and reining in big drug companies.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Qr7dbV">
<em><strong>Update, August 23, 7:45 am ET:</strong></em><em> This story was originally published on February 23 and has been updated multiple times, most recently to include Johnson’s and Binkley’s bids and updated polling numbers.</em>
</p></li>
<li><strong>Netflix is justing giving DVDs away now</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="Netflix founder Reed Hastings sitting in a mail crate full of red DVD envelopes." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/FuAPcmwihCVqusI3c6tYbC59Teg=/18x0:2630x1959/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72569636/GettyImages_695624.0.jpg"/>
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Netflix founder Reed Hastings holds up a few dozen DVDs headed to eager households in 2002, when the company had 500,000 subscribers. | Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
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Netflix is finally completing its pivot away from shipping DVDs — and it’s not asking for its discs back either.
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<a href="https://www.vox.com/netflix">Netflix</a> is treating the end of the DVD era like a birthday party — or a funeral, depending on your point of view. The company announced in April that it would send its last DVD by mail on September 29, a little over 25 years after it sent the very first one. (Fun fact: The very first red Netflix envelope <a href="http://blog.dvd.netflix.com/new-dvd-releases/beetlejuice-beetlejuice-beetlejuice">contained Tim Burton’s <em>Beetlejuice</em></a>.) If you’ve never heard of DVD.com or you thought Netflix got out of the disc-shipping business years ago, that’s understandable. But now is your chance to own a piece of it.
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This week, Netflix said that DVD.com subscribers <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2023/8/22/23841540/netflix-dvd-com-subscribers-keep-unreturned-discs">can keep all the discs</a> they had rented just before the company went out of business. “We are not charging for any unreturned discs after 9/29,” the company <a href="https://twitter.com/dvdnetflix/status/1693794419659653517">explained in a tweet</a>. “Please enjoy your final shipments for as long as you like!” And on top of that, DVD.com subscribers can sign up <a href="https://twitter.com/RaquelStecher/status/1693672866988884218">for a surprise shipment of up to 10 extra discs</a> to show up in their mailbox after the site shuts down. Think of them as party favors on your way out the door.
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You might not think this is so exciting if you’re one of the <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/04/18/1170740799/netflix-ends-dvd-by-mail-service">more than 1 million subscribers</a> to DVD.com, many of whom are surely sore about the demise of the mail-order service. While the streaming wars have made it seem as though there’s more content online than anyone could ever watch or want, it’s easy to overlook the fact that Netflix’s DVD business still had huge appeal to people who lived in rural areas or who liked <a href="https://www.vox.com/movies">movies</a> that were unlikely to show up on a streaming service. That Netflix is now going to let some of those folks keep a dozen or so discs for good makes the company look generous. But it also highlights how many of its most loyal customers it’s leaving behind.
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The fact of the matter is that Netflix has been planning to abandon DVDs since the 20th century. Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos has recalled how Netflix founder <a href="https://www.vox.com/reed-hastings">Reed Hastings</a> told him back in 1999 that he planned to take the business completely online as soon as the economics worked out. “Back then, [Hastings] said that postage rates were going to keep going up and the internet was going to get twice as fast at half the price every 18 months,” Sarandos <a href="https://variety.com/2018/digital/news/netflix-streaming-dvds-original-programming-1202910483/">told Variety in 2018</a>. “At some point those lines would cross, and it would become more cost-efficient to stream a movie rather than to mail a video. And that’s when we get in.”
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That happened in 2007, when Netflix launched its streaming business, which was not quite as slick as it is today. There were just 1,000 movies to choose from, and the system worked a lot like the DVD-by-mail service. If you had the $18-a-month plan, you could only download three movies at a time, and based on your plan, you would only be able to watch 18 hours of streaming content a month. A New York Times reporter <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/16/technology/16netflix.html">also noted at the time</a> that he had trouble getting started “because of a mismatch between the version of <a href="https://www.vox.com/microsoft">Microsoft</a>’s antipiracy software expected by the Netflix viewer and the one loaded in the PC, and it took about 15 minutes to fix the problem with the help of a customer-support specialist.” That kind of thing never happened with a DVD.
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By 2011, it was clear that streaming was the future not only for Netflix but for movies and TV shows in general. That was the year Hastings orchestrated what might be the most notorious move in Netflix history: <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/6/23/21287050/netflix-effect-qwikster-culture-podcast-vox-recode-land-of-the-giants-reed-hastings">the Qwikster pivot</a>. Sensing that the DVD business could drag down Netflix’s burgeoning streaming ambitions, Hastings decided to split the company in two: Netflix for streaming and a new company called Qwikster for DVDs by mail. The problem was that existing Netflix subscribers would end up paying significantly more for two separate services if they wanted to keep getting streaming and DVDs. Many felt as though Netflix was taking the DVD service they loved <a href="https://qz.com/1245107/as-netflix-turns-20-lets-revisit-its-biggest-blunder">away from them</a>. Hundreds of thousands of people unsubscribed, Netflix stock plummeted, and three weeks later, Hastings reversed course and abandoned the Qwikster split.
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And that’s why you’ve probably never heard of DVD.com. Although the company made a big deal of distancing itself from the Qwikster pivot, it still went ahead and quietly spun off its DVD business. It just called it DVD.com instead of Qwikster, and it left Netflix pricing alone. And millions of people kept getting DVDs by mail. In 2011, when the split happened, that number was about 16 million, and now it’s between 1.1 and 1.3 million. Netflix’s streaming service, by comparison, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/netflix-subscribers-quarterly-earnings-password-sharing-af0abe0489d06a3240ff33ef292a55e0">added 5.9 million subscribers</a> last quarter alone, bringing its global total to 238.4 million.
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When you step back and think about it, Netflix would have a hard time shipping that many DVDs regardless of the cost. At the end of the day, movies and TV shows are just a bunch of data, whether you put that data on a disc or through an ethernet cable. Netflix’s DVD-by-mail business <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/2020/4/23/21230324/netflix-dvd-rental-classic-movies">was making a profit</a> as recently as the fourth quarter of 2019, the last time the company included details of DVD.com in its earnings, but it was never what the future held. Plus, whatever resources Netflix has been devoting to its DVD-by-mail business, it needs everything it can get to fight <a href="https://www.vox.com/technology/2023/6/21/23768778/hbo-netflix-insecure-streaming-amazon-peter-kafka-media-column">the next battle of the streaming wars</a>.
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So for all you nostalgic movie fans out there, you’ve only got a few days left to experience the end of the Netflix DVD era and claim your prize. Until <a href="https://dvd.netflix.com/Faq">the end of the day on September 29</a>, you can sign up for a DVD.com account and get in on that last shipment of red envelopes. You can request up to eight discs at a time, plus there’s that offer to receive 10 surprise discs. And again, you will not have to send those discs back. Hold on to them. Cherish them. In a few years, when they’re considered collectibles and extremely cool by the youngest generation’s standards, sell them so you can afford to subscribe to five different streaming services.
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<em>A version of this story was also published in the Vox technology newsletter. </em><a href="https://www.vox.com/pages/newsletters"><em><strong>Sign up here</strong></em></a><em> so you don’t miss the next one!</em>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</h1>
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>FIDE Chess World Cup 2023: Praggnanandhaa vs Carlsen 2nd game ends in draw</strong> - Indian grandmaster R. Praggnanandhaa plays against World No.1 Magnus Carlsen</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Serena Williams gives birth to second child, a daughter</strong> - Adira River Ohanian is the second child for the 41-year-old Williams and her husband, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Former Zimbabwe cricket captain Heath Streak confirms he is alive after rumours of death go viral</strong> - The former player has spoken to Sportstar confirming he is alive</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Afghanistan records lowest ODI total by any team against Pakistan to lose by 142 runs in 1st ODI</strong> - Haris Rauf took 5 wickets for Pakistan as the team bowled out Afghanistan for 59</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Srinagar acid attack case: two get life imprisonment</strong> - The accused were identified as Irshad Amin Wani alias Sunny from Wazirbagh of Srinagar and Mohammed Umer Noor, a resident of Bemina, Srinagar</p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-the-hindu-national-news">From The Hindu: National News</h1>
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Andhra Pradesh: school gets water facility in Srikakulam district</strong> -</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Here are the big stories from Karnataka today</strong> - Welcome to the Karnataka Today newsletter, your guide from The Hindu on the major news stories to follow today. Curated by Nalme Nachiyar.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>LCA Tejas successfully test-fires ASTRA beyond visual range missile</strong> - Defence Minister Rajnath Singh complimented ADA, DRDO, CEMILAC, DG-AQA and the industry for the successful test firing of the missile from the Tejas-LCA</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Hope India’s proposal for permanent G20 membership to African Union gets support from BRICS: PM Modi</strong> - The African Union (AU) is an influential organisation consisting of the 55 member states that make up the countries of the African continent</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>ED conducts searches at premises of Chhattisgarh CM Baghel’s political advisor, two OSDs</strong> - Security personnel were also seen outside the house of businessman Vijay Bhatia in Nehrunagar area of Bhilai in Durg.</p></li>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</h1>
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Greek fires rage after migrant tragedy near border</strong> - The bodies of 18 males were found in a forest in northern Greece where fires have burned for days.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Russian general who ran Ukraine war fired - report</strong> - Sergei Surovikin was head of aerospace forces but has not been since a failed mutiny in June.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Ukraine war: Three killed in Belgorod hours after drones hit Moscow</strong> - Russian officials blame Ukraine for the incidents, but it is unclear who is responsible.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Ukraine war: Three elderly people killed in Russian shelling, say officials</strong> - Meanwhile a strike on the Danube river port of Izmail destroyed 13,000 tons of grain, a minister says.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Luis Rubiales’ apology for kissing Jenni Hermoso ‘not enough’ says Spain’s prime minister</strong> - Spain’s prime minister says there is “a long way to go for equality” after Luis Rubiales kissed Jenni Hermoso following the Women’s World Cup final.</p></li>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</h1>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>How ChatGPT turned generative AI into an “anything tool”</strong> - Until recently, AI models were specialized tools. Modern LLMs are different. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1957715">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Valves are a regular concern at SpaceX, just like every other space company</strong> - “We’re humbled every time we learn something.” - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1962279">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Amid US’s shameful maternal death rate, survey finds widespread mistreatment</strong> - One in five report mistreatment and 30% report discrimination. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1962480">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Police are investigating an Indian actor for joking about the country’s Moon lander</strong> - There is a lot of national fervor surrounding Chandrayaan 3. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1962451">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Zack Snyder unveils extended teaser for his Netflix sci-fi saga Rebel Moon</strong> - “Let’s show them that we’re more than the shackles that bind us.” - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1962407">link</a></p></li>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</h1>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The woman says to her husband: “If i had known you were so poor, i wouldn’t have married you.”</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
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Husband: “But I told you that you were the most valuable thing in my life.”
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/MarcoDanielRebelo"> /u/MarcoDanielRebelo </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/15yz7yi/the_woman_says_to_her_husband_if_i_had_known_you/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/15yz7yi/the_woman_says_to_her_husband_if_i_had_known_you/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A man sits down next to a woman at the bar</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
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He orders a beer and notices the TV above the bar showing the 5 O’clock news
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The news is covering someone standing on the edge of a bridge with the police trying to talk him down from jumping
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The man at the bar looks to the woman next to him and says “I bet you $10 he jumps”
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The woman looks at the man and says “I’ll take that bet”
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A few minutes go by and the man ends up jumping off the bridge
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So the woman says “well you were right” and slides $10 to the man at the bar
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he slides the money back and tells her “I can’t in good conscience take the money, they showed this on the 4 O’clock news earlier I knew he was gonna jump”
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The woman leaves the money on the bar and replies “well I saw the 4 O’clock news too, but I didn’t think he would jump twice”
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Iactuallymadeamainac"> /u/Iactuallymadeamainac </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/15yk0ln/a_man_sits_down_next_to_a_woman_at_the_bar/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/15yk0ln/a_man_sits_down_next_to_a_woman_at_the_bar/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Gen Z names are so stupid. For instance, a young man introduced himself to me as Jathan….. Not Jason. Not Nathan… Jathan.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
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I’m not good with remembering names so I try to incorporate them into the conversation to help me to remember. So I said to him
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“It’s very nice to meet you Jathan.”
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“That is a very unique name, Jathan.”
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“Are you from around here Jathan?”
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To which he replied
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“Wow, are you theriouth right now?”
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<sup><sup>credit:</sup></sup> <sup><sup><span class="citation" data-cites="matttaylor">@matttaylor</span></sup></sup>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/PluckPubes"> /u/PluckPubes </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/15y3inc/gen_z_names_are_so_stupid_for_instance_a_young/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/15y3inc/gen_z_names_are_so_stupid_for_instance_a_young/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>my grief counsellor died this week</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
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but luckily he was so good I didn’t give a sh*t
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/mortcarver"> /u/mortcarver </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/15yyueq/my_grief_counsellor_died_this_week/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/15yyueq/my_grief_counsellor_died_this_week/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>For those of you who are about to get married, here’s something to consider:</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
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On the one hand, you get to wear a really cool ring.
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On the other hand,….you don’t.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/porichoygupto"> /u/porichoygupto </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/15yvoyj/for_those_of_you_who_are_about_to_get_married/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/15yvoyj/for_those_of_you_who_are_about_to_get_married/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
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